Pro-Palestinian demonstrations across Europe
Thousands of people in major cities across Europe expressed their support at the weekend for the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel. In Paris, riots broke out. In Berlin, police officers were pelted with stones.
In the French capital Paris, police used tear gas and water cannon against pro-Palestinian activists who had taken to the streets despite a ban on demonstrations. Some threw stones or tried to block roads with construction barricades. A planned march to the Place de la Bastille was prevented. According to police, 44 people were arrested and one policeman was injured. The president of the Palestinian Association for the Paris region, Walid Atallah, accused authorities of stoking tensions with the short-term ban on demonstrations.
Security authorities fear severe riots like those in 2014, when synagogues and other Jewish institutions were targeted. In other French cities, however, including Toulouse and Montpellier in southern France, pro-Palestinian demonstrations were allowed to take place. Hundreds took to the streets there. Demonstrations were also scheduled in Lyon, Bordeaux, and Marseille.
Amid the growing violence in the Middle East, people in Germany also took to the streets to express their solidarity with the Palestinians. Initially peaceful demonstrations turned violent in some cities. For the most part, however, the anti-Israel demonstrations were peaceful. In Berlin, demonstrators attacked police officers and threw stones and bottles at them. Fireworks were also hurled. Police used pepper spray.
Berlin police had initially declared the protest dispersed due to breaches of the corona hygiene rules. However, since demonstrators did not comply with the order, the officers took action against them in the Neukölln district. In some cases, openly anti-Semitic shouts could be heard from the demonstrators. On banners were slogans such as "Free Palestine," "Stop Apartheid" or "Peace and freedom for the Palestinian civilian population."
In Frankfurt, according to police, about 2500 people demonstrated for a free Palestine. Only shortly before, the Administrative Court had lifted the city's ban on demonstrations, which had been decided on Friday. Many participants came with Palestinian flags. There were no major incidents, according to a police spokesman. In Stuttgart, there were tumultuous scenes at a rally organised by the initiative "Palestine speaks", in Freiburg, the police reported pockets of tension. In Cologne, according to police, about 800 people demonstrated against Israel and for Palestine. After the breakup of a pro-Palestinian rally with about 500 participants in Mannheim, police said that police officers were pelted with stones. In addition, a man tried to set fire to an Israeli flag. The police intervened and arrested the man.
In London, several thousand protesters demanded that the British government call for an end to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. They marched from near Hyde Park in the heart of the British capital toward the Israeli Embassy. Palestinian flags were waved and signs held up calling for the "liberation" of Palestinian territories from Israeli occupation.
Speakers included former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. He called on the government in Jerusalem to end its occupation of the West Bank. The 71-year-old, who sits in Parliament for the London constituency of North Islington, is currently suspended from his party's parliamentary group while an investigation into anti-Semitism in the party under his leadership (2015 to 2020) is ongoing.
Corbyn had also been accused of anti-Semitic tendencies himself in the past because of his perceived one-sided support for the Palestinians, but has always denied the accusations.
The organisers spoke of 150,000 participants, the police gave no details. The organisers included several associations, including the Stop the War Alliance, the Muslim Association of Britain and the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.
In Madrid, about 2,500 people took to the streets in support of the Palestinians, according to police. "Jerusalem, eternal capital of the Palestinians," banners read. Many young people were draped in Palestinian flags. The demonstrators called on Europeans to stop cooperating with Israel. (dpa/AFP)