Thousands of people joined a pro-Palestinian rally in Paris on Sunday in the first such demonstration allowed since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October. Demonstrators were calling for an end to the Israeli military operation in Gaza, which organisers called a "massacre".
The rally at Place de la Republique was the first after France’s highest administrative court overturned a blanket ban by police on pro-Palestinian protests.
"We managed to convince the judges that we are defending human rights," lawyer Dominique Cochin told the crowd on Sunday.
The court ruling said the police could only ban protests on a case-by-case basis, and the prefecture said it had authorised Sunday’s rally because its organisers had condemned the 7 October attacks in Israel.
Associations coming together
The rally was called by the National Collective for a sustainable and just peace between Palestinians and Israelis, a collective made up of more than 40 organisations, including the France Palestine solidarity association, the Jewish French union for peace, as well as hard left France Unbowed party and the CGT trade union.
Police estimated that 15,000 people attended, while organisers counted 30,000.
Organisers unfurled a sign placed at the base of the statue in the centre of the plaza that called for a "stop to the massacre in Gaza".
"We have been moblised for the past ten days against this slaughter that is happening in Israel and in Palestine," Richard Wagman, the honorary president of the French Jewish union for peace, part of the organising collective, told RFI.
The group is calling for a ceasefire and the end to the blockade of Gaza.
"For us, as Jews, its extremely important to distinguish ourselves from the Israeli policy that absolutely does not represent us."
High security
The rally was held under tight security as France is on high alert since the murder of a teacher in Arras, northern France, last week, and a string of bomb threats sent to airports, schools and cultural centres.
Police said they made ten arrests at the rally, which was held largely without incident.
About a thousand people also marched in the southern city of Marseille.
The French Jewish student union held a separate rally Sunday evening in Paris to call for the liberation of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
"This rally is clearly primarily intended to inform the public and to put the issue of the hostages back on centre stage," the union's president, Samuel Lejoyeux, told RFI.
"What happened on 7 October was not an act of reisstance by Hamas, it was a terrorist act."
