Several thousand people gathered on Saturday, May 22, in Paris and in several cities, to renew their support for the Palestinians, as a ceasefire ended on Thursday eleven days of deadly clashes between Israel and Hamas, the ruling Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.
“Just because there is a ceasefire doesn’t mean the issue is resolved. This fight concerns all people attached to the values of justice, dignity and rights ”, explained Bertrand Heilbronn, president of the Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), at the origin of the Parisian gathering with several other associations and organizations.
Announced as a parade, the mobilization was limited to a rally at Place de la République by the Paris Police Prefecture, which had banned demonstrations last weekend. “Palestine will live, Palestine will win”, “Israel assassin, Macron accomplice”, “We are all Palestinians”chanted the crowd waving Palestinian flags and those of organizations present, such as the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), the National Union of Students of France (UNEF) or the General Confederation of Labor (CGT).
According to the CGT, whose secretary general, Philippe Martinez, was present, between 3,000 and 4,000 people were gathered. If the police presence was discreet during the rally, the police took over the square after 6 p.m., the scheduled end time of the mobilization.
“My family has lost everything”
“Even if the bombardments have stopped, the occupier is still there, the inhabitants [du quartier] Sheikh Jarrah [à Jérusalem-Est] are still threatened with expulsion and the Gaza Strip is under blockade ”, denounced a protester, Wael, a 28-year-old computer engineer, Palestinian flag on his shoulders.
Other rallies and demonstrations were held in France. In Lyon, 1,100 people demonstrated, according to the Rhône prefecture, as many as last Saturday. A minute of silence was observed for bereaved families in Gaza as the procession progressed with a large police force.
In Strasbourg, they were between 650 and 1,000. “Palestinians have the right to live in peace and to have a state. Israel is depriving us of our rights, of our homes. I am Palestinian, I no longer have the right to go to Palestine, my family has lost everything ”, testified Imad Deaibis, 28 years old.
In Lille, around 1,000 demonstrators, according to the organizers, 650 according to a police source, marched behind a banner “Against colonization, military occupation and apartheid”, calling for a boycott of Israel. They were also several hundred in Toulouse, Montpellier, Saint-Etienne and Annecy.
The ceasefire announced Thursday evening by the two parties has set no end to the end of the fighting and remains fragile. The surge in violence between the IDF and Hamas has left 248 Palestinians dead, including 66 children and fighters, according to authorities in Gaza, and 12 dead in Israel including a child, a teenage girl and a soldier, according to the authorities in Gaza. the police.