Palestinian-Israeli conflict: Paris bans pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli marches

The French Interior Ministry decided to ban Saturday’s pro-Palestinian demonstration in Paris, refusing to allow the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to enter French territory. The French government’s decision was condemned by the Ile-de-France Palestinian Association, the organizer of the march, and the French far-left.

The pro-Palestinian demonstration, scheduled for tomorrow, May 15, in Paris against the backdrop of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza, was banned by the French Interior Ministry due to the potential for public disorder. President Macron announced on Twitter that this was his decision. The Paris police chief has signed the ban.

France is considered to be the European country with the largest Arab and Jewish population. Macron’s government refuses to let this Israeli-Palestinian conflict enter France to spark social unrest and Jew-hatred movements.

Paris police chief Didier Lallement signed a ban yesterday on the march scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday from Barbès, northeast of Paris, to Bastille Square, at the request of Interior Minister Darmanin. In particular, he noted that “clashes between Palestinians and Israeli law enforcement agencies threaten to spill over into French national territory, causing “serious disruptions to public order”.

The march’s organizers, the Association of Palestinians in Ile-de-France, and the far-left group France Insoumise, both denounced the ban as a “provocation” to them and “an attack on democracy. It is “an attack on democracy”.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday afternoon, and while expressing his condolences for the many deaths of Palestinian civilians as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Macron strongly condemned Hamas and other terrorist groups for shelling Israel.

The escalating military conflict between Israel and Hamas and other Islamist militant teams has killed 119 Palestinians and wounded 830 in Gaza since Monday of this week.

Hamas began firing rockets into Israel this Monday after hundreds of Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police in East Jerusalem’s Mosque Square, triggering Israeli bombardment of Gaza in a gradual escalation of the conflict. So far the Israeli bombing has targeted office and residential buildings of Hamas and Islamic militant leaders in Gaza, as well as tunnel systems. Eight people have been killed and hundreds injured in Israel.