Conflict in the Middle East: Protests in support of Palestinians have been organized around the world

Tensions have increased in recent days between Palestinians and Israelis, giving way to violent clashes with an already heavy human toll.

Palestinian flags were once again waved in the streets of several cities in France this Saturday, May 15. Rallies were organized to support the Palestinians in their conflict with the Israelis. New clashes in recent days have left a hundred dead, including children, and more than a thousand injured on both sides and tensions are not easing.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered early Saturday afternoon in northern Paris, despite the ban issued by the police headquarters.

According to the Interior Ministry, 22,000 demonstrators marched across France, including 2,500 to 3,500 in Paris.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered early Saturday afternoon in northern Paris, despite the ban issued by authorities who feared overflows. Despite everything, some demonstrators tried to meet in the north of the capital, near the Barbès metro station, clashing with the police forces mobilized in numbers.

The first groups of people were observed in the area of ​​Barbès at the beginning of the afternoon, indicates the prefecture of Paris. They were immediately dispersed by the police with a water cannon and tear gas. Banners held up by some demonstrators were also confiscated. 4,200 police and gendarmes are mobilized, according to the police headquarters. It has also issued an order to close shops in the Barbès-Rochechouart sector.

All that for a demonstration for peace “, laments a demonstrator.” It scandalizes me that the demonstration was banned, while in other Western countries demonstrations could take place “, she notes, in the hand a sign reading: “Resistance is not terrorism.”

Throughout the afternoon, the demonstrators were dispersed with water cannons. On the other hand, other demonstrations took place in France, each time bringing together several hundred, even several thousand people, in peace. This was the case in Lille, Metz, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Marseille and even Toulouse.

At 7 p.m. the police had made 44 arrests

At 7 p.m., 44 people were arrested on the sidelines of the demonstration in the capital, announced the police headquarters. A gendarme was injured.

Several hundred people also gathered in Tarbes and Pau. “When you are a Palestinian you cannot live normally. There is no security. Not a minute!” Said a Palestinian refugee.

“Palestine will live, Palestine will win”: more than 4,000 people according to the police and the organizers demonstrated without incident in Strasbourg. “Israel is attacking Palestine, we have to stand in solidarity with Palestine to prevent this massacre from continuing. They have destroyed everything in many towns in Gaza. There are demonstrations everywhere to try to prevent this massacre from continuing,” he said. Perrine Olff, spokesperson for the Judeo-Arab and Citizen Collective for Palestine, and member of the Union of Jews of France for Peace, AFP said.

In Lille, around 300 people are gathered on the Grand’place. More than 2,000 Marseillais also gathered. The demonstrators were around 400 in Metz and Annecy, 300 in Orléans, between 250 in Clermont, according to the police, and 500, according to the organizers, 250 in Belfort and Avignon or twenty in Annonay, in Ardèche. They were also several hundred in Nîmes and Reims, to ask for a solid and lasting peace.

In addition, around 2,500 people marched in central Madrid in support of the Palestinian cause, ditto in several German cities, including Berlin, and thousands of demonstrators gathered in London to call on the British government to intervene in order to do so. cease the Israeli military operation. Gatherings were also held in several towns in Tunisia.

Support for Palestinians around the world

In London, thousands of people demonstrated in the center of the city, calling on the British government to intervene to stop the Israeli military operation.

Protesters gathered at midday in Marble Arch, from where they walked towards the Israeli embassy, ​​waving Palestinian flags and signs calling for the “liberation” of the Palestinian territories.

“The British government is complicit in these acts as long as it offers military, diplomatic and financial support to Israel,” the organizers said.

According to them, including the Stop the War coalition and the UK Muslim Association, the protest brought together 150,000 people. When questioned by AFP, the police did not provide a figure.

In Rome, a few hundred people gathered near the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, carrying large Palestinian flags and chanting slogans.

“You don’t have to be a Muslim to support Palestine, you just need to be human,” proclaimed a sign.

In Germany, thousands of people demonstrated in Berlin and several cities at the call of pro-Palestinian groups.

In the capital, three demonstrations were authorized for the single day of Saturday, including two in the popular district of Neukölln, in the south of the city.

Behind the slogan “March of the Palestinian people for liberation and return”, thousands of people gathered in Hermannplatz, the central square of the district, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags, as well as signs calling for “Boycott of Israel”.

The demonstrators were shouting “Free Gaza!” “,” Palestinian live matter “or” Save Sheikh Jarrah “, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem where Palestinian families are threatened with eviction by Israeli settlers.

In Madrid, around 2,500 people marched in peace. “The silence of some is the suffering of others”, “Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Palestine”, could be read on the banners and placards held up by the demonstrators.

“This is not a war, this is genocide! They chanted as they walked up from Atocha station to Plaza del Sol.

“They are killing us. We are in a situation in which the Naqba [the “catastrophe” in Arabic] continues into the 21st century, ”Amira Cheikh-Ali, 37, a daughter of Palestinian refugees, told AFP, referring to the term used for refer to the exodus of Palestinians after the creation of the State of Israel in May 1948.

In Warsaw, around 300 people, mostly Palestinians living in Poland, demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy. With Palestinian flags in hand, they held up signs “Stop the Holocaust of Palestinians” or “Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine”, and shouted slogans in favor of “Free Palestine”.

In Tunisia, demonstrations took place in several cities. Hundreds of demonstrators draped in Palestinian flags gathered in central Tunis, before marching on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, watched by police.

Among the slogans of the demonstrators, who defied the lockdown in force until Sunday, we could hear: “Tunisians support Palestine!” Or “The people want to criminalize normalization with Israel!” “.

Police will continue to be present at the protest scene throughout the night, police inspector Paw Kaltoft told Danish public broadcaster DR after announcing the arrest of three people.

The demonstration, which took place in front of the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, was dispersed due to “disturbances” to public order, local police said on Twitter, adding that many police officers had been mobilized at the scene. .

According to local media, some 4,000 people participated in the protest. A group of 50 to 100 people started throwing stones at the embassy building and at the police, they said.

According to the public channel DR, the police used tear gas and batons to disperse the demonstrators.

“Everyone has the right to express themselves peacefully in Denmark,” tweeted Jeppe Kofod, Danish Foreign Minister, adding that the stone-throwing at the police and the Israeli embassy was “completely unacceptable.” “I condemn him clearly and firmly,” he insisted.

The protest, dubbed “Solidarity with Palestine”, was organized in response to the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, including calling on the Danish government to condemn the Hebrew state.

In the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel for more than 50 years, the clashes were very violent Friday with 11 Palestinians killed, most by live ammunition fired by Israeli soldiers, and more than 150 wounded, according to the Palestinian authorities.

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