From Paris to Berlin. Pro-Israel or pro-Palestine protests multiply

CAround 15 thousand protesters, according to a police estimate, gathered in Paris to demand an end to Israeli military operations in Gaza, at the request of a collective that brings together 40 organizations, including Palestinian and Muslim groups, peace associations, trade unions, workers and students and left-wing parties.

“Israel is a murderer, Macron is an accomplice”, “there is no peace without decolonization” – the participants of this rally organized in Praça da República multiplied pro-Palestinian slogans, according to the description of the agency France Fresse (AFP).

The collective “For a Just and Lasting Peace between Palestinians and Israelis”, which promoted the concentration, placed a banner at the base of the statue of the Republic, calling on France to “request an immediate ceasefire” and “stop the massacre in Gaza.

“You don’t have to be Palestinian to be affected by what is happening. For me, this type of meeting is a sign of desperation,” Maya, a student who demonstrated with friends, told AFP. “The government [francês] has a role to play diplomatically. It must take firmer positions and not act in support of Israel,” he declared.

“Macron gives Israel a license to kill”, condemned, in turn, the president of the French-Palestinian Solidarity Association (AFPS), Bertrand Heilbronn.

As for the attacks by the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7th against Israeli soil, “the emotion is legitimate”, but “its exploitation is criminal as it serves to justify a war of elimination that the State of Israel is waging against the Palestinian people” , he added.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered a ban on all pro-Palestinian demonstrations, but later ruled that requests are analyzed locally on a case-by-case basis.

Also in Paris, a rally was scheduled for today, promoted by the Union of Jewish Students of France, to demand the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas, an action similar to that which took place at a vigil in Trafalgar Square, in London, where participants held signs with images of hostages and missing people, shouting “bring them home”.

Today’s demonstrations came a day after tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protesters — 100,000 according to police estimates — marched through the British capital to demand that Israel stop its bombing of Gaza, launched in response to the brutal Hamas incursion. .

In the German capital, thousands of people demonstrated to show opposition to anti-Semitism and support for Israel, carrying Israeli flags or posters with photos of some people reported missing or held hostage by the Islamist movement.

The concentration, organized by a broad union of organizations, occurs at a time when anti-Semitic incidents have increased in Germany, following the violent escalation of the war in the Middle East.

Organizers estimated that more than 20,000 people participated in the demonstration, while police estimated the number at half.

“It is unbearable that Jews live in fear again today in our country,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told protesters gathered outside the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

German authorities on Saturday banned a pro-Palestinian rally under the slogan “Peace in the Middle East”, which was scheduled for today, considering that there was a danger of anti-Semitic incitement and violence, as well as any substitute event until October 30.

In Belgium, a crowd estimated at 12,000 by police gathered in front of European Union institutions in Brussels, in a demonstration organized by groups that included trade unions, Christian organizations and Arab solidarity movements.

Several thousand people also took to the streets in Sarajevo, some comparing the situation in Gaza with the suffering of Bosniaks, who are mostly Muslims, during the war in the country between 1992 and 1995.

“What is happening in Gaza is simply a human disaster. Collective punishment. War crimes. These things must be called by their name,” said, quoted by the Associated Press, Nabil Nasser, a Palestinian doctor who worked in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.

Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, and in Podgorica, the capital of neighboring Montenegro.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas has already caused thousands of deaths and injuries, including soldiers and civilians.

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