Pro-Palestinian rally draws thousands in Paris as protest ban lifted
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Riot police push back protesters in Paris, during a demonstration in support of Palestinians.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
PARIS - Thousands gathered for a pro-Palestinian protest in the heart of Paris on Thursday, after authorities lifted a ban put in place immediately after the Hamas attack on Israel.
A Paris court on Thursday had suspended a ban that had been put on the protest in Place de la Republique in central Paris.
Thousands had already gathered for the rally, which started off peacefully, but later saw clashes with police, who used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
Last week, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin had called on regional authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations, highlighting a spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the wake of the latest violence in Israel and Gaza.
But the Paris court said that bans imposed by regional prefects were “a serious and clearly illegal threat to the freedom to protest”.
President Emmanuel Macron said it had been justified to block pro-Palestinian demonstrations immediately after the Oct 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
“I think there was a period of decency – there had been a terrorist attack, it wasn’t good,” he said earlier on Thursday, in an exchange with students in the street witnessed by AFP.
“I see people who want to demonstrate peacefully but there are hyper-radical elements who are going to burn the Israeli flag and defend Hamas,” Mr Macron added.
Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel on Oct 7 and shot, stabbed and burned to death more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians,
A protester waves a Palestinian flag during a demonstration in Paris in support of Palestinians.
PHOTO: AFP
Israel has retaliated by relentlessly bombing the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, killing at least 3,785 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory.
The bombing has levelled entire city blocks, displacing more than one million of the 2.4 million population, the UN has said.
France has large Jewish and Muslim populations and has been on high alert since Hamas’ assault on Israel, and since a teacher was killed
