During pro-Palestinian marches in Paris on Thursday, a policeman knelt on a demonstrator à la George Floyd–an action that enraged intervening Good Samaritans–and which in turn prompted the officer to remove his foot from the protestor, as shown in a video shared by Anadolu Agency.
French police deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse protestors who flocked to the streets in solidarity with Palestinians following the rapacious Israeli assaults on the Gaza strip commencing October 7, when the “Al-Aqsa Flood” began.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin prohibited all pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the French Republic on Tuesday, claiming they might lead to “public order disturbances,” and added that “organizing these prohibited demonstrations could lead to arrests.”
According to the French State Council, it is solely up to the prefects to determine whether there are grounds for prohibiting a demonstration locally due to the risk of disrupting public order or over the determination that the demonstration is indeed intended to support the Palestinian people.
One week prior, French Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti threatened seven years imprisonment for anyone who sympathizes with “what Israel is being subjected to by supporting Hamas or declaring its support” for Palestine.