Many demonstrators gathered at Place du Châtelet in Paris, despite the authorities banning the gathering “in support of the Palestinian people”.
Thousands of people participated in a rally on Saturday, October 28 in the afternoon in Paris. “of support for the Palestinian people”banned by the authorities, to cries in particular of “Gaza, Gaza, Paris is with you”, noted an AFP journalist. Place du Châtelet, in the very center of the capital, the crowd was prevented from moving by a very large police force. Demonstrators chanted “Gaza, Gaza, Paris is with you” and “it is humanity that we are assassinating, children of Gaza, children of Palestine”. Others “Israel assassin, Macron accomplice”.
Pro-Palestinian demonstration for a “cease fire” in Châtelet, Paris, #Gaza Slogan: “Israel assassin, Macron complicit” pic.twitter.com/lBGJhFBbJd
— Djilali BELAID (@dbelaid) October 28, 2023
Among the demonstrators were elected officials girded with their tricolor scarves, such as the environmentalist deputy for Val-d’Oise Aurélien Taché and the LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Jérôme Legavre. “The urgency is the ceasefire, stop killing women, children, men”estimated the deputy mayor of Corbeil-Essonne, Elsa Touré, on site, while arguing that “the Israeli state has been following international law for years”.
“Context of heightened tensions”
The administrative court had validated the prefectural ban on this demonstration at midday, citing in particular “the seriousness of the risk of disturbances to public order” And “a context of heightened tensions linked to events in the Gaza Strip with an increase in anti-Semitic acts in France.”
🔴 Today’s demonstration departing from #Châtelet was banned by prefectural decree, confirmed by the courts.
It cannot therefore take place. You risk being arrested and/or fined. pic.twitter.com/Ywchz6vUds— Police Prefecture (@prefpolice) October 28, 2023
Three LFI activists spoke with police officers who warned them that they risked being “fined, at 135 euros” if they stayed. The police headquarters confirms to franceinfo that it issued 80 fines a little before 5 p.m. “In the United States there are thousands of demonstrators calling for a ceasefire, in other countries as well, and in France, it is forbidden while what happened yesterday was a war crime or even against humanity, international justice will judge”protested to AFP an LFI demonstrator, after a night of unprecedented bombings carried out by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, carrying out a bloody attack against civilians on a scale and violence not seen since the creation of Israel in 1948. In retaliation , Israel declared a war for “annihilate” Hamas, relentlessly shelling the Gaza Strip.