“Between Dunkirk and Gaza, it’s a long story. » Matteo Pottier Bianchi doesn’t know where to start. Aged 22, this history professor who worked on the Second Empire period at the Sorbonne University was elected in December 2022 president of the Franco-Palestinian Dunkirk-Gaza association. Its mission: to preserve cooperation between the two territories, linked by twinning since 1996. “There are similarities between Dunkirk and Gaza, he goes on to explain this link. Geographically, the two territories extend over a strip of land along the coast. They also both experienced occupation and war. » Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the situation has of course completely changed. “No communication is possible, laments Matteo Pottier Bianchi. We cannot do anything, no one can go to Gaza. An exchange between Dunkirk and Palestinian students was about to be launched, but the war froze it. »
The link between Dunkirk and Gaza was officially forged by the socialist Michel Delebarre (1946-2022), former mayor of the northern city for twenty-five years, from 1989 to 2014. The one who was several times minister under François Mitterrand felt a particular sensitivity regarding the Israeli-Palestinian question. “For him, in 1993, the Oslo Accords, which were to mark the end of the conflict, were a great moment of hope that quickly vanished following the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, notes Claude Nicolet, deputy of Michel Delebarre of 1995 to 2014. He wanted to find a way to work for peace. »
The idea of a three-way marriage
Inspired by the twinning established between German and French cities at the end of the second world war to bring the two peoples together, Michel Delebarre wishes do the same with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Initially, the idea of a three-way marriage between Dunkirk, Gaza and the Israeli commune of Ramat Hasharon, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, was considered. In 1997, a peace tree was even planted in Dunkirk alongside Michel Delebarre, from Gaza, Ashraf Shaat, student at the University of Dunkirk, and the mayor of Ramat Hasharon, Ephraim Hiram. “Despite advanced relations with Ramat Hasharon, the tripartite marriage was abandoned due to a peak in tensions during the second Intifada, between 2000 and 2005, explains Matteo Pottier Bianchi. Relations then became too tense between the two camps. »
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