Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday (15) in several cities in Europe and Tunisia to support the Palestinians in the ongoing clashes with Israel.
The Middle East region is experiencing the worst escalation of violence since 2014. On Saturday, more rocket fire broke out between the two sides, with an Israeli attack destroying a building in Gaza housing press vehicles, including the Associated Press and TV Al Jazeera.
At least 139 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of this new phase of hostilities, which began a week ago, including 39 children and 21 women, and 950 others have been injured, according to Palestinian doctors.
In France, demonstrations took place in several cities, including Paris, where mobilizations were banned by the authorities due to a precedent in 2014, when a pro-Palestinian march degenerated into urban violence.
Police in the French capital adopted an immediate dispersal tactic, using water cannons and tear gas whenever protesters attempted to regroup. According to journalists, clashes between demonstrators and police took place in the afternoon in the district of Barbès, in the northern part of the capital. On Boulevard Barbès, a group of about 100 people chanted “Murderous Israel”, while Palestinian flags were hoisted or used as capes.
“France is the only democratic country to ban such demonstrations,” protested the lawyers of the Association of Palestinians of Ile-de-France.
In London, thousands of people demonstrated at the center to support the Palestinian people and call on the British government to intervene to prevent the Israeli military operation. Protesters gathered at noon at Marble Arch, near Hyde Park, from where they walked towards the Israeli embassy, crossing the park, waving Palestinian flags and posters calling for the liberation of the Palestinian territories.
“It is essential that the British government take immediate action,” said organizers, including the Stop the War coalition, the UK Muslim association, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
“The British government is complicit in these acts because it offers military, diplomatic and financial support to Israel,” organizers said.
In Madrid, some 2,500 people demonstrated at the center in support of the Palestinian cause. “The silence of some is the suffering of others,” “Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Palestine,” said banners and posters of demonstrators, many of them young women.
“It’s not a war, it’s a genocide!” They shouted as they walked up from Atocha station to Puerta del Sol square. Many young people were involved in the Palestinian flags. “They are killing us. We are in a situation where Naqba (the ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic) is still in the middle of the 21st century, ”said Amira Cheikh-Ali, 37, daughter of Palestinian refugees, using the term to refer to the exodus afterwards. the creation of the State of Israel in May 1948.
In Germany, thousands of people demonstrated in Berlin and in several cities, responding to the call of pro-Palestinian collectives. In the capital, three demonstrations were authorized, including two in the district of Neukölln, in the southern part of the city.
Under the slogan “March of the Palestinian People for Liberation and Return”, thousands of people gathered in Hermannplatz, the central square, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags, as well as posters calling for a “boycott of Israel” .
Protesters shouted “Free Gaza!”, “Palestine lives on matter” or “Save Sheikh Jarrah”, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem where Palestinian families are threatened with eviction by Israeli settlers.
Actions were also performed in Brussels, Belgium, and Utrecht, the Netherlands.
In Warsaw, Poland, around three hundred people, mostly Palestinians based in Poland, demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy. With Palestinian flags in hand, they displayed “Stop the Palestinian Holocaust” or “Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine” signs and shouted slogans in favor of a free Palestine.
In Tunisia, in North Africa, demonstrations took place in several cities. Hundreds of demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags gathered in central Tunis, before marching on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, guarded by police. Among the slogans of the demonstrators, who defied the imprisonment in force until Sunday: “Tunisians and Tunisians support Palestine!” and “The people want to criminalize normalization with Israel!”
“Regarding the massacres against the Palestinians, the international powers remain silent and indifferent in the face of Zionist crimes,” denounced Dalila Borji, 23. To his mother Nahla, “this injustice is fueling more and more people’s hatred against Israel and countries. who support you ”.