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Hundreds of French demonstrated on Saturday in Paris against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands and against Israeli siege on Gaza.
“We are here today to say ‘No to occupation and colonisation’ and call for the immediate lifting of the blockade of Gaza,” Olivia Zemor, president of the CAPJPO-EuroPalestine organisation, which organised the demonstration, said.
The French demonstrators gathered near the Place du Chatelet in central Paris. They chanted anti-Israel slogans and waved placards reading: “No to collaboration with the Israeli occupier.”
A while after the start of the demonstration, unlicensed pro-Israeli demonstration arrived, where the demonstrators attacked the anti-Israeli occupation demonstrators, accusing them of chanting anti-Sematic slogans.
“It is abnormal that this demonstration, whose slogans are anti-Semitic, is authorised,” Benjamin, one of the pro-Israel demonstrators said. “It is a gathering contrary to the values of France and living together,” the 30-year-old added.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had called on Friday for the demonstration to be cancelled, warning that it would disturb public order and “could be considered as a public, anti-Semitic act to French Jews,” AFP reported.
“We are not anti-Semitic: we are anti-fascists, anti-Zionists and we are fighting for equal rights while the Palestinian people are deprived of all their fundamental rights,” said Jean-Claude Amara of Droits Devant (Rights First), another organising group.
In a statement, the groups had said they were calling for the demonstration “to celebrate the Palestinian resistance to the occupation and to the settlements” and urge sanctions against Israel.
“No to blackmail by means of anti-Semitism,” they wrote, implying that criticism of Israel is being unfairly labelled anti-Semitic. “No to the dictates of the Israeli lobby. No to attacks on freedom of expression. No to attacks by the fascist thugs of the Jewish Defence League.”
Just a couple of days ago, it was revealed that five big French companies are involved in the activities of the illegal Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.
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