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Agence France-Presse

A French court on Friday upheld a police ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration planned for Saturday in Paris, but the organisers said they were not cancelling the march.
Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration called over the ongoing conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014.
Following Friday’s court ruling, the lawyers now say they will appeal to France’s top administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat.
However the protest organisers said they had no plans to call off Saturday’s action.

“We refuse to silence our solidarity with the Palestinians, and we will not be prevented from demonstrating,” the Association of Palestinians in the Ile-de-France capital region and other groups said soon after the court ban was announced.
Among the 30 groups planning Saturday’s action are anti-fascists and the new Anti-Capitalist party.
Earlier representatives of the association told Agence France-Presse that France is “the only democratic country to forbid these demonstrations”.
How Jerusalem tensions sparked heaviest Israel-Gaza fighting in years
Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration called over the ongoing conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014.
Following the failure of their initial petition, the lawyers now say they will appeal to France’s top administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat.
Sefen Guez Guez, one of the lawyers, had earlier called the police ban “disproportionate” and “politically motivated”.


Paris police chief Didier Lallement said allowing the demonstration would risk “a serious disturbance of public order”, adding that he feared “acts against synagogues and Israeli interests”.
While he referred to violence at the 2014 demonstration, Guez Guez responded that there had been “no problem at all” at many protests since.
The planned demonstration would target France’s government as well as Israel, with organisers saying Paris is too favourable towards the Middle Eastern state.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, offering his “condolences for the victims of the rocket fire claimed by Hamas and other terrorist groups”.
The statement said Macron urged a return to peace, “and also communicated to his counterpart his concern about the civilian population in Gaza”.
French politicians were mostly split along party lines over the protest ban, with Macron’s centre-right party and the right-wing opposition supporting the move, while leftists called it an unacceptable attack on freedom of expression.

But Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist, said the government had made a “wise” decision.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Thursday told police chiefs elsewhere in France to keep a close eye on planned demonstrations and also ban them if necessary, and to bolster police protection of the Jewish community.
Worldwide, only Israel and the United States have bigger Jewish populations than France.
Beyond the Paris ban, police in Mediterranean port city Marseille said a march there must be converted into a stationary protest, while Darmanin said another in eastern Strasbourg was also blocked.
Police in Lyon and Bordeaux told Agence France-Presse that there were no restrictions on rallies there.
Israel bombarded Gaza with artillery and air strikes on Friday following a new barrage of rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave, intensifying a conflict that has now claimed at least 141 lives.


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France

French court upholds ban on pro-Palestine Paris demonstration, but organisers remain defiant

A protester wears a face mask reading “Free Palestine” during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Paris on Wednesday. Photo: AP

epa09191515 French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin looks on during a ceremony to pay tribute to police officer Eric Masson, who was killed on May 5 during an anti-drug operation, in Avignon France, 11 May 2021. EPA-EFE/NICOLAS TUCAT / POOL MAXPPP OUT

France's President Emmanuel Macron attends a video conference with New Zealand's Prime Minister (unseen) from the Fort de Bregancon, at Bormes-Les-Mimosas, southern France, on May 14, 2021, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the “Christchurch call” against online terrorist and extremist content. (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP)

Israel air raid in Gaza kills 10, mostly children in deadliest single strike since conflict erupted

Palestinian mourners cry during the funeral of a man in West Bank. Photo: AP

A Palestinian protester smacks a traffic light with a pole during clashes with Israeli forces in the Shuafat camp for Palestinian refugees, neighbouring the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 14, 2021. - Israel faced a widening conflict, as deadly violence escalated across the West Bank amid a massive aerial bombardment in Gaza and unprecedented unrest among Arabs and Jews inside the country. The West Bank clashes, described as among the most intense since the second intifada that began in 2000, left seven people dead from Israeli fire, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the death toll from strikes in Gaza rose to 122. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Palestinian protesters hurl stones during clashes with Israeli forces in the Shuafat camp for Palestinian refugees, neighbouring the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 14, 2021. - Israel faced a widening conflict, as deadly violence escalated across the West Bank amid a massive aerial bombardment in Gaza and unprecedented unrest among Arabs and Jews inside the country. The West Bank clashes, described as among the most intense since the second intifada that began in 2000, left seven people dead from Israeli fire, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the death toll from strikes in Gaza rose to 122. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Palestinian protesters hurl stones during clashes with Israeli forces in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Shuafat, neighbouring the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. Photo: AFP

How Jerusalem tensions sparked heaviest Israel-Gaza fighting in years

Am Israeli guided bomb the moment before it hits Al-Sharouk tower in Gaza City. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepts a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, above the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, on May 12, 2021. (Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP)

An Israeli artillery unit fires toward targets in Gaza Strip. Photo: AP

China calls for UN Security Council to push for de-escalation of Jerusalem tensions

Smoke billows from Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on Tuesday, as tensions escalate after violent unrest at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Photo: AFP

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying attends a press conference in Beijing on Dec. 8, 2020. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

News

World

Europe


Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration over the conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014
‘We refuse to silence our solidarity with the Palestinians, and we will not be prevented from demonstrating,’ said the Association of Palestinians



Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration over the conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014.


Israel

Emmanuel Macron

Middle East

War and conflict

French court upholds ban on pro-Palestine Paris demonstration, but organisers remain defiant

Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration over the conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014 ‘We refuse to silence our solidarity with the Palestinians, and we will not be prevented from demonstrating,’ said the Association of Palestinians

Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration over the conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014

‘We refuse to silence our solidarity with the Palestinians, and we will not be prevented from demonstrating,’ said the Association of Palestinians