France Bans Pro-Palestinian Rallies in Several Cities

A police official said Wednesday that a protest march against the recent Israeli military attacks against the Gaza Strip planned for Saturday in Paris is banned because of “the serious risk of disruption of public order that such a protest could engender, in a context of heightened tension,” AP reported.

The ban comes at a time when Jewish-Muslim tensions in France have reached their peak. Last Sunday’s rally started out peacefully, but ended in stone-throwing and sporadic violence, with some Jews holed up inside two synagogues, as police quickly upped the security around Jewish establishments and businesses. There were several injuries.

According to Radio France Internationale, the ban on rallies was proposed by France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. He called on officials to take the situation into their own hands after the synagogue incident earlier on Sunday.

That day’s event included 50 political parties, as well as unions and activist groups, which were to take to the streets in protest in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Toulouse to seek an “immediate end” to Israel’s bombing of Gaza, where the death toll reached near 230 people.

Following the Sunday protest, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday said the violence is “inadmissible,” adding that "France will never tolerate using violent words or acts to import the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on our soil," RT reported.

Israel has launched a new wave of military strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip after tensions raged between Palestinians and Israelis following the burning alive of a Palestinian teen in East al-Quds by Israeli settlers.

16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s death sparked a wave of protests across the Palestinian territories earlier this month.
It came a few days after the Israeli military found the dead bodies of three settler teenagers who had been allegedly kidnapped in the occupied West Bank.
Israel was quick to point the finger of blame at the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. The resistance group, however, strongly rejected the allegations, saying Tel Aviv, which was outraged with the formation of a Palestinian unity government, was looking for a pretext to launch a new aggression against the people of Gaza.

Some 230 people have been killed and over 1680 others injured in the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip so far. According to the United Nations, nearly 80 percent of the victims are civilians.