PARIS, Oct 12 (Portal) – French police used tear gas and water cannons to break up a banned rally in support of the Palestinian people in Paris on Thursday, while President Emmanuel Macron urged the French to remain united and refrain from Taking Israel and Hamas home from conflict.
Macron’s interior minister had previously banned pro-Palestinian protests, saying they were “likely to cause disturbances to public order.”
France is home to the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Europe. In the past, the Middle East conflict has often led to domestic political tensions.
“This event is an earthquake for Israel, the Middle East and beyond,” Macron said in a celebratory televised address. “Let us not pursue ideological adventures at home through imitation or projection.”
“Let us not add national divisions to international divisions through illusions or calculations,” he said. “The shield of unity will protect us from hatred and excess.”
Macron said the government had taken measures to increase police protection of Jewish sites, including schools and synagogues, and that there could be no justification for atrocities.
“There is no ‘yes, but’. Anyone who confuses the Palestinian cause with the justification of terrorism is making a moral, political and strategic mistake.”
[1/9]Demonstrators hold Palestinian flags during an unauthorized demonstration in support of Palestinians as part of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas at Place de la République in Paris, as French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered the systematic ban… Acquire license rights Read more
Before he spoke, the far-left France Unbowed party was criticized for refusing to call the Hamas attack an act of terrorism, causing tensions with its Socialist and Green opposition partners.
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Despite the ban, several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in central Paris in separate groups, which police forces tried to prevent from joining together.
Demonstrators chanted “Israel murderers” and “Macron accomplices.” Macron has previously condemned the deadly attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and expressed solidarity with Israel.
“We live in a country of civil law, in a country where we have the right to take a stand and demonstrate. (It’s unfair) to ban one side and allow it to the other,” said Charlotte Vautier, 29, a nonprofit worker who attended the rally.
Earlier this week, Hamas called for protests across the Muslim world on Friday in support of the Palestinians.
Two pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Paris had already been banned on Thursday over fears of riots, as Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called on prefects to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country.
Since Hamas’s cross-border attack from Gaza on Saturday, French police have arrested more than 20 people in dozens of anti-Semitic acts, including the harassment of Jewish children by classmates at school, the government said on Wednesday.
Reporting by Layli Foroudi, Antonoa Cimine, Noemie Olive and Michel Rose; Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Edited by Mark Heinrich and Howard Goller
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