French Activist Slams France For Banning pro-Palestine Protests
A French activist said Friday that a decision to ban pro-Palestine protests in Paris is a “continuation of the racist policies of France.”
Yasser Louati, head of the Justice and Liberties For All Committee, told Anadolu Agency that as a result of the pressure from Jewish institutions, including the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, the French are afraid of being labeled as “anti-Semitic.”
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asked police to ban pro-Palestine protests in Paris on Thursday after tensions rose in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
Louati said Darmanin’s decision was the result of pressure from the Zionist lobby in France.
“Darmanin’s decision, Macron’s statement supporting Israel’s civilian massacre in Gaza while degrading the Palestinian resistance into ‘Hamas missiles’ is a preparation against potential anger by the Zionists,” he said. “It’s also a full commitment to Israeli policies.”
Louati accused France of once again being on the wrong side of history.
He criticized French media for emphasizing Israel’s right to self-defense and said: “There is a terrible hypocrisy in the French media that show the cruel as oppressed and the oppressed as cruel.”
The decision to ban pro-Palestine protests will not prevent demonstrators from showing sympathy for Palestinians. “We will demonstrate whether they want it or not,” he said.
“If Palestinians can cope with Israeli bombs, genocide and ethnic cleansing, we can demonstrate despite the tear gas from the police and the risk of getting arrested,” he said.
He noted the French police recent violence against yellow west protests and said France violates the right to association, assembly, freedom for conscious and freedom of expression.
“We have seen this in the law on ‘separatism,’ which is against the existence of Muslims as citizens, and the global security law, which bans the filming of police violence,” he said.
“I refuse France teaching other countries about human rights and freedoms,” he added.
