A small group of black blocs, who came to honor the memory of Clément Méric, an anti-fascist activist who died eleven years ago, on June 5, 2013, in a brawl with skinheads, opened the march. Arms are raised to the cries of “We are all anti-fascists” like stadiums. The procession called by the Committee for Clément, Saturday 1er June afternoon, to which Urgence Palestine and Urgence Kanaky had joined, was quickly dominated by demonstrators in support of the Palestinians, who made up the bulk of the 22,000 people, according to the police, marching between Place de la République and Place Gambetta in Paris.
Students, and especially female students, from North African immigration, very young girls, few veils but lots of keffiyehs, a few palms painted red: in the opinion of regular participants, the procession was more extensive, despite the rain, and younger than usual. “More people”assures Maissane Naïli, 23 years old, communications student in Paris, as during the first parades against the Israeli response, in October 2023. This is confirmed by Salomé Garcenot, in hypokhâgne at the Parisian Victor-Duruy high school, which became politicized with the “global security” law, at the end of 2020, then the pension law, in 2023. “More energy too”says Sara, 25 years old, a young employee from Picardy, face hidden under her keffiyeh.
No head procession composed of elected officials or personalities, only a few banners of far-left groups (NPA-Revolutionaries, the anarchist union CNT, the Union of Libertarian Communists, Permanent Revolution) and, here and there, tricolor scarves of a few “rebellious” deputies: Ersilia Soudais (Seine-et-Marne), Mathilde Panot (Val-de-Marne), or Thomas Portes (Seine-Saint-Denis).
“Israel get out of there”, sound systems chant
“We must applaud Rima Hassan and all the LFI deputies”, launches the Urgence Palestine sound system, in support of the candidate for the European elections. A few days earlier, LFI deputy Sébastien Delogu was excluded from the National Assembly for two weeks for displaying a Palestinian flag in the hemicycle.
“All eyes on Rafah” (“All eyes on Rafah”), says a small cardboard sign. She’s all alone. The Israeli offensive in the town in the south of the Gaza Strip, which provoked strong media emotion in France, did not appear in the slogans, but the spontaneous demonstrations that have been brewing for a week found their continuation this Saturday .
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