PARIS POLICE USE RUBBER BULLETS AGAINST PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS

Sat 15 May 2021:

The police in Paris began firing rubber bullets at protesters who gathered for an unauthorized rally in support of Palestine on Saturday.

Police in Paris had ordered shops to close from noon along the planned route, from the heavily immigrant Barbes neighbourhood in the north to the Place de la Bastille.

Pro-Palestinian Protesters in Paris-France, were met with riot police, water cannons and tear gas after the government banned the rally from taking place.#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #AlAqsaMosque #Jerusalem #Paris #France pic.twitter.com/qlXykgincj

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) May 15, 2021

Dozens of riot-control officers converged on the area ahead of the protest, which was set to start at 3pm, as did crowds of youths facing off against police units on several streets.

Walid Atallah, president of the Association of Palestinians in Ile-de-France, the region encompassing Paris, accused the government of inflaming tensions with the ban.

“If there were genuine risks of public disorder, of serious problems, they would have prohibited it right away,” he told a press conference.

“They banned it at the last minute – it’s unacceptable,” he said.

Pro-Palestinian Protesters in Paris-France, were met with riot police, water cannons and tear gas after the government banned the rally from taking place.#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #AlAqsaMosque #Jerusalem #Paris #France pic.twitter.com/FpBeIFQMoi

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) May 15, 2021

Protests went ahead in Montpellier, Toulouse and several other cities.

Critics accuse France of being too favourable toward Israel in the latest conflict, which has seen barrages of rocket fire from Gaza in response to deadly Israeli artillery and air strikes killing dozens of civilians.

The ban has caused a split among French politicians, with President Emmanuel Macron’s centre-right party and the right-wing opposition supporting the move, but leftists calling it an unacceptable attack on freedom of expression.

Officials said they feared a repeat of fierce clashes that erupted at a similar Paris march during the last war in 2014, when protesters took aim at synagogues and other Israeli and Jewish targets.

Police officers used tear gas and water cannon in Paris on Saturday to try and disperse a pro-Palestinian rally#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #AlAqsaMosque #Jerusalem #Paris #France pic.twitter.com/hINdPvU2mS

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) May 15, 2021

The protest had originally been called to mark the Nakba, as Palestinians call the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation in 1948, which turned hundreds of thousands into refugees.

But a Paris court upheld the ban on Friday, saying the “international and domestic context” justified fears of unrest “that could be as serious or even worse than in 2014”.

Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin also called for similar bans in other cities if necessary, and officials have prohibited marches in Nice and some Paris suburbs.