With her flag with a red triangle waving in the wind, Lou embodies a part of this French youth committed to the Palestinian cause. “I am against the fact that we attach more importance to a thousand deaths than to 7,000,” says the 25-year-old woman who, since the beginning of the conflict, has been present at all demonstrations in support of the people of Gaza. Along with her two friends, she defied the ban on the gathering organized this Saturday afternoon in Place du Châtelet in Paris, at the call of the Palestine Action Committee and the NPA – a ban confirmed by the administrative court late in the morning – to show her support for a people she feels is “dehumanized.” “It’s a cry in the face of the intolerable,” adds Yamina.
While the three friends condemn the abuses committed by Hamas fighters, they refuse to label them as terrorists, like some of the Insoumis. “Like the resistance fighters during the Algerian war against French colonization, they prefer to die standing up rather than live on their knees,” Farah believes.
Surrounded by numerous riot police who used tear gas to disperse them, the few thousand people present are demanding an immediate ceasefire after the terrible Israeli strikes that hit the Gaza Strip last night. A wish that Yannick Jadot also expressed. “In the face of such a tragedy, it is important to show our solidarity with the people of Gaza, just as we would with the Israeli population,” confided the Green senator. “I do not understand this strategy of tension from the government, which considers protesting as a crime.”
Emmanuel Macron’s position, who refrained from calling for an end to the bombings after his visit to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, has caused incomprehension and even anger among the protesters. Even though the president has since called for a “humanitarian truce to organize the protection of the most vulnerable.” “We are letting the Palestinian people die,” insists Louise, a 16-year-old. “France must do something.”
With chants of “We are all Palestinians” or “Children of Gaza, children of Palestine, it is humanity that we are killing,” many protesters intend to provide another interpretation of a conflict that seems to divide the French. Like Yassine, a statistics and computer science student, who, with his handmade sign that reads “I died 7,303 times,” wants to break the silence that he believes surrounds the suffering of the Palestinians. “There is no justification for disrespecting international law so much,” laments the 21-year-old young man. “It is an insult to every human being.”
When asked if they would support a movement in favor of the Israelis, both Yassine and Lou, Yamina, and Farah, place the responsibility for the escalation of the war on Benjamin Netanyahu. “There are those who oppose genocide, and those who support the colonization of a territory.” As the day comes to an end, tensions rise when law enforcement tries to evacuate the protesters stranded near the Châtelet.
