Several hundred people demonstrated Wednesday evening in Saint-Denis near Paris to ask France to say “stop the genocide” in Gaza, before the France-Israel match at the Stade de France, noted an AFP journalist.
The rally’s slogan was “don’t play with genocide,” the same day a special UN committee concluded Thursday that Israel’s methods of warfare in the Gaza Strip “meet the characteristics of genocide.” “.
Wearing the tricolor scarf, LFI MP Eric Coquerel told a few hundred demonstrators gathered on the Place du Front populaire in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), two hours before the start of the meeting: “It’s a second-rate match but, rarely, (we announce) the presence of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior, two former presidents. How do you expect (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu to not hear ‘you can continue the genocide’? »
“France is looking elsewhere or more precisely it is watching a France-Israel match,” added Mr. Coquerel, who however estimated that “a first boycott is successful since there are less than 20,000 registered” to attend this match .
Among the demonstrators, Mohamed, a 26-year-old lawyer who did not wish to give his name, judges that “the problem this evening is that the president (Emmanuel Macron) is coming to support a clearly genocidal Israeli government, he would have had to abstain (from attending the match), condemn Israel and call for sanctions, that’s the least we can do.”
“What shocks us is the lack of reaction from Western governments, the impunity from which Israel benefits,” said another demonstrator, Sébastien Wildmann, a 48-year-old caregiver, member of the White Coats of Gaza collective, denouncing the bombing of a hospital or refugee camp.
In the name of Urgence Palestine, which called for demonstrations, Neva Bekhtari launched into the microphone: “Our objective is to denounce the impunity of Israel (…) welcomed with open arms in France, even if thanks to our pressure, the Israeli Finance Minister (Bezabel Smotrich) ultimately did not come to Paris on Wednesday to participate in a gala in support of controversial Israel, which was held in a secret location in the capital.
Several hundred people demonstrated on Wednesday evening in Saint-Denis near Paris to ask France to say “stop the genocide” in Gaza, before the France-Israel match at the Stade de France, noted an AFP journalist. The rally’s slogan was “we don’t play with genocide”, the same day a special UN committee concluded Thursday that…
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