Clashes took place much of the afternoon in Paris, mainly in the Barbes district, where a call to demonstrate had been launched and maintained despite the ban on all gatherings following an order. prefectural. From 3 p.m., the scheduled time for the start of the demonstration, the order to disperse was given by a police commissioner while the surroundings were literally crisscrossed by an impressive police device, supported by several trucks equipped with launchers. of water.
In the crowd, made up of several hundred people but without a procession leader or identified organization, slogans such as “Terrorist Israel, Macron accomplice” were launched by demonstrators waving placards on which one could read “Massacre”, ” Genocide ”and“ Balance your colonies ”.
Shortly after the order to disperse, the water launching cannons came into action on Boulevard de la Chapelle, in the 18th borough. Without great clashes despite brief episodes of tension, the demonstrators were for a time driven back on the outskirts of the rue Marx-Dormoy then split into several groups, partly gaining the Goutte-d’Or district and, for the essential, massing near the police, which multiplied the charges in order to clear the crossroads and used tear gas. If traffic was re-established around 4 p.m. in the neighborhood, some of the demonstrators, quite young, several of whom were flying Palestinian flags, tried to reach the Republic neighborhood but were blocked by a double cordon. CRS at Boulevard Magenta. Singing and calling for “Free Gaza”, they were held in a trap for over an hour before curfew time struck the end of the rally.
Two kilometers away, Porte de Clignancourt, more violent clashes pitted several dozen of the most determined demonstrators against the police, who proceeded to 44 arrests. A mobile gendarme was also slightly injured and evacuated by the Paris firefighters, as was a young woman, a few hours earlier, feeling unwell after firing a tear gas canister.
“We are not going to give the police the opportunity to tarnish our image”
Everywhere else in France, the demonstrations took place without notable incident, sometimes bringing together up to 2,000 to 3,000 people, as in Marseille, where associations were present at the gathering at Place Bargemon in the city’s first arrondissement. “France is indignant and astonished, but does nothing. Macron says Israel has the right to defend itself, but Palestinians also have this right ”, explained on the spot Annie Fiore (a pseudonym), president of Palestine en Résistances, a collective created three years ago, which brings together many associations such as France Palestine Solidarité, CCFD, Cimade, or BDS, which aims at the Boycott of Israel .
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