The manifestations support for Palestinian people took place throughout France this Saturday, May 15, despite bans imposed by certain prefectures to prevent the risk of unrest. If clashes occurred in the capital, the gatherings were held generally calm in the rest of the country. These protests come after one of the largest escalations of violence since 2014 between Israel and Hamas, in and around the Gaza Strip, and a rise in inter-communal violence in Israeli towns including Jerusalem. Here’s what to remember from these events.
Read also: Right and left divided over pro-Palestinian protests
22,000 demonstrators in France
Pro-Palestinian protests brought together 22,000 people in France including 2,500 to 3,500 in Paris, said the Interior Ministry.
In Paris, the demonstrators indeed braved theban on demonstrating whose legality was confirmed by justice. If clashes occurred, the journalists did not however observe spectacular breakages, similar to the incidents which occurred in 2014 in Paris, and whose violence and anti-Semitic remarks had justified. the ban on assembly in the capital this Saturday, the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin fearing “risk of unrest”.
Elsewhere in France, the most important gatherings took place in Strasbourg (4,000 demonstrators), Marseille (1,500), Lyon and Nantes (1,000), according to the Ministry of the Interior.
At the end of the day, a total of 51 people were arrested, including 44 in Paris, according to the police headquarters. There were two “light injuries” among the police: an agent of the BAC in Nice and a mobile gendarme in Paris, it was added.
Clashes in the capital
A large police force has been deployed in Paris to prevent the risk of overflows. 4,200 police and gendarmes were thus mobilized in the capital, according to the police headquarters. But clashes did occur all the same.
During the afternoon, large white clouds formed in certain streets of Paris, where the police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who left the Barbes district in the XVIIIe arrondissement who were to go to Bastille. For several hours, face-to-face, sometimes tense, between the police and the demonstrators occurred until the beginning of the evening, in particular on the boulevards Barbes, Magenta and Ornano, in the north of Paris. Journalists observed processions of 100 people, mostly young men, throwing stones and projectiles, forming barricades and igniting garbage cans. The police also regularly used water cannons to disperse them.
Pro-Palestinian protest banned in Paris: police use tear gas to disperse the crowd pic.twitter.com/l56tYRLflS
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) May 15, 2021
Large gatherings elsewhere in France in peace
Other gatherings took place in France this Saturday, several demonstrations of which were also 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 Strasbourg, more than 4,000 people according to the police and the organizers demonstrated without incident. 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, 600 to 700 according to the prefecture. In Lyon, the gathering gathered 1,000 people according to the prefecture; in Bordeaux, they were 600, according to AFP offices in the region.
Protests amid tensions
The protest was originally planned to commemorate the Nakba, the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians upon the creation of Israel in 1948. But due to the outbreak of violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip in recent days, planned rallies have taken on new significance for organizers who called for solidarity with the Palestinian people. “Free Palestine”; “Israel murderer”, “Israel break up, Palestine is not yours”, “Palestine will live.” Palestine will win ”, notably shouted demonstrators in the streets.
The latest Palestinian authorities’ report on Saturday reported 139 dead in Gaza, while 10 people were killed in Israel.
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