22,000 people gathered this Saturday in France during pro-Palestine protests, according to figures communicated by the Interior Ministry.
About 22,000 demonstrators gathered in France, according to the Interior Ministry for pro-Palestine protests this Saturday, sometimes defying the ban of the authorities, as in Paris.
In the capital, where the last demonstrators were dispersed Porte de Clignancourt by the police shortly after 7 p.m., between 2,500 to 3,500 people according to the authorities, 4,500 to 5,000 according to the organizers, gathered in small groups in the Barbès district, in the 18th arrondissement.
15 people in police custody
A total of 51 people were arrested, including 44 in Paris where, according to provisional figures from the prosecution, 15 people were in custody in the early evening, in particular for “participation in a group formed for violence”, “participation to a gathering after summons “and” violence against the police “.
There were two “light injuries” among the police (one in Nice, one in Paris), according to the Interior Ministry.
A massive police deployment in the district of Barbès, in the 18th arrondissement, first prevented the demonstrators who had an appointment and planned to go to Bastille, from deploying a procession.
For several hours, face-to-face, sometimes tense, pitted demonstrators and police. Police charges, use of water and tear gas cannons on numerous occasions, throwing of various projectiles by the demonstrators, dustbin fires …. A “game of the cat and the mouse” between the two parties on large boulevards or narrower streets punctuated the afternoon.
Some 4,200 police and gendarmes mobilized, according to the police headquarters, applied the instructions for “systematic and immediate dispersion” as soon as demonstrators tried to regroup.
“Free Palestine”; “Israel murderer”, “Israel break up, Palestine is not yours”, shouted earlier demonstrators in the small streets of the Goutte d’Or district. “Palestine will live. Palestine will win,” one could hear. Here and there, a few Palestinian flags were waved or used in cloaks.
The organizers, including the Association of Palestinians in Ile-de-France, as well as about thirty other organizations, such as Attac, the Paris-Banlieue Antifascist Action, the New Anticapitalist Party had maintained their call to demonstrate, in despite the ban requested by the authorities and confirmed Friday evening by the administrative court.
This ban was taken Thursday evening by the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, at the request of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, for “risk of disturbances”, highlighting the precedent of 2014, when a Protestant demonstration in Paris had degenerated into urban violence.
Events in Nice, Montpellier, Strasbourg …
Other events have been banned, such as in Nice, or in Aubervilliers and Montreuil in Seine-Saint-Denis. In Nice, some 150 people gathered peacefully despite the ban. Likewise in Grenoble, where around 200 people demonstrated.
On the other hand, demonstrations or gatherings have been authorized in many cities. In Montpellier, around 200 people, according to the Hérault prefecture, gathered in peace. In the procession, Saloua Abdel Hadi, a 23-year-old childminder, came with a childhood friend “to support this oppressed people. For a long time, France has closed its eyes to everything that the people endure every day. Palestinian from the State of Israel, ”she regrets. Myriam Sebbari, 51, nurse, is sorry to see “the Israeli oppression on these kids in Palestine”.
In Strasbourg, more than 4,000 people according to the police and the organizers demonstrated without incident. In Marseille, they were around 1,500. Some 800 people according to the organizers, 400 according to the police, gathered in Toulouse. In Lille, they were 1,500 according to the organizers, 6 to 700 according to the prefecture. In Lyon, the gathering gathered 1,000 people according to the prefecture.
Division of the political class
The government spokesman described the decision to ban the Paris demonstration as “pragmatic”. “We do not want there to be scenes of violence, we do not want to import a conflict on French soil, we do not want a hate crisis in the streets of the French Republic”, declared Gabriel Attal, visiting Marseille.
The ban on the Parisian demonstration divides the political class, between supporters of the government’s demand – essentially in the majority, on the right and on the extreme right – and those who denounce an “unacceptable” measure, led by La France insoumise ( BIA).
The calls for demonstrations come against the backdrop of a military escalation unprecedented in recent days since 2014 between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas, in and around the Gaza Strip, and violence in mixed Arab and Jewish Israeli towns.
This conflict has killed 139 Palestinians since Monday, including some 40 children, and hundreds of wounded in the Gaza Strip, according to a latest Palestinian report. In Israel, ten people were killed including a child and nearly 600 injured.
–
