French court bans pro-Palestine demo, organisers defiant

AFP

Paris, May 15: A French court on Friday upheld a police ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration planned for Saturday in Paris, but the organisers said they were not cancelling the march. 

Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration called over the ongoing conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014. 

Following Friday’s court ruling, the lawyers now say they will appeal to France’s top administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat. However, the protest organisers said they had no plans to call off Saturday’s action. 

“We refuse to silence our solidarity with the Palestinians, and we will not be prevented from demonstrating,” the Association of Palestinians in the Ile-de-France capital region and other groups said shortly after the court ban was announced.  

Among the 30 groups planning Saturday’s action are anti-fascists and the new Anti-Capitalist party. 

Earlier, representatives of the association told AFP that France is “the only democratic country to forbid these demonstrations”. 

Police on Thursday banned Saturday’s demonstration called over the ongoing conflict with Israel, fearing a repeat of clashes during a similar protest in 2014. 

Following the failure of their initial petition, the lawyers now say they will appeal to France’s top administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat. 

Sefen Guez Guez, one of the lawyers, had earlier called the police ban ‘disproportionate’ and ‘politically motivated’. 

https://www.wionews.com/world/french-court-bans-pro-palestine-demo-organisers-defiant-385185