In Paris, several thousand demonstrators march “against racism and Islamophobia”

The administrative court had suspended on Friday the ban on this gathering, announced the day before by the prefecture. Many participants also expressed their support for the Palestinian cause.

Several thousand people marched in Paris “against racism and Islamophobia”Sunday April 21, as part of a march aimed in particular “police violence”. Walking behind a banner “Our children are in danger”the demonstrators left Barbès at the beginning of the afternoon at the call of around fifty organizations including La France insoumise, the New Anticapitalist Party, Attac and Solidaires.

“We had to think about mobilization outside of the white march and dramatic events” because “Police violence is the most serious violence that affects our children, those in the neighborhoods, poor, black or Arab children”, commented Yessa Belkhodja, co-initiator of this march. But “this violence is only part of the violence, there is daily violence”, she added. The demonstration was to end at Place de la République with a concert at 6 p.m., in which the rapper Médine was to participate.

The situation in Gaza often mentioned in the procession

Many demonstrators wore a keffiyeh in solidarity with the population of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army once again carried out deadly bombings on Sunday, notably on the town of Rafah. The demonstration, at which Palestinian flags flew, took place more than six months after the start of the war against Hamas in the Palestinian territory, following the October 7 attack.

“If we are here at a time when the Palestinians are being widely dehumanized, (….) it is to say that all lives are equal. (…) The common thread that we carry today is is the equal dignity of human beings”declared to a few journalists the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot, present alongside the members of her group Eric Coquerel and Danièle Obono.

The demonstration was banned Thursday by the police headquarters on the grounds that the denunciation “in his call for ‘police crimes’ against young people” was “conducive to attracting components deliberately seeking clashes with the police”at the risk of “disturbing public order”. Seized in summary proceedings, the Paris administrative court suspended this ban the next day, ruling that it affected “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on freedom of demonstration”.