Gaza-Israel Dateline Paris: Dispatch No.5 by Nidra Poller
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/55356/cat_id/326/Gaza-Israel-Dateline-Paris-Dispatch-No5-by-Nidra-Poller
5,000 attend banned demonstration Place de la République (see my earlier post here with photos.)
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve set forth, in a solemn address to the nation, a severe warning to organizers and potential demonstrators. The right to demonstrate is indeed respected in France. Over 60 demonstrations of support for the Palestinians have been held in France, only 5 have been banned. The ban is based on a thorough examination of all available evidence from social media and other sources. The risk of disturbing the peace is too great. The organizers have not given convincing proof of their ability to control the crowd. The ban was upheld by the court. It is the law of the land. We cannot tolerate expressions of anti-Semitism masked in support for Palestinians. Synagogues were attacked, Jewish property was destroyed, public property was smashed and riot police were attacked.
Approximately one half hour later the crowd started to gather at Place de la République. By 3 PM it was estimated at 3,000 and at the height of the demonstration, at 5,000. Journalists tweeted, cameramen filmed, riot police stood firm, and nobody rounded up the lawbreakers and carted them away. As the story always goes, it started out as a good-natured gathering, lots of women and children, nothing objectionable, well almost nothing. A jihad flag is clearly visible at the foot of the monument to the République alongside the “moderate” Palestinian flag. Israel was called dirty names. The media were accused of pro-Israel bias. You have to understand jihad to know that these guys are dead serious.
Unless you present their Islamically pure version, unless you display the same slogans, repeat the same war cries, show the same hatred as they demonstrate, you are a pro-Zionist puppet. Prime Minister Valls is capped with a kippa, President Hollande waves an Israeli flag. As the afternoon wore on journalists were kicked, threatened, pushed around. Mike and camera were grabbed away from an I-Télé crew.
That was the good-natured part of the demonstration. It went on for about two hours and, surprise, as it was dispersing, some 500 (maybe it was more like a thousand?) tough guys started to attack the police. A rumor reportedly triggered the change in temper—the Jewish Defense League was on its way. Or already there. In which case it would be logical to attack the police, don’t you see?
The battle went on for two hours. The security detachment provided by the organizers was a pushover. The usual smashing was enjoyed by all. Teargas filled the square. It is reported that 50 people were pulled aside and about 30 of them actually detained.
The police surrounded the mob, pushing them gradually…to the metro station. Yes, that is how it was described. They evacuated the smashers by sending them into the metro station. And on their merry way.
Hours later the Marais was itself again. A beautiful summer evening with a gentle breeze. Sounds of joyful singing wafted from the windows of the synagogue on the Place des Vosges while in a corner under the arcades someone played hatikvah on a tingly instrument. Languages mixed on the quiet streets, cafés and restaurants pulsed with life, people lined up to buy Italian ice cream at Amorino’s. It was hard to believe that the caliphators had been making obscene quenelle gestures and lusting for Jewish blood just a few hours before and a few blocks away.
Friendly imams, intellectuals, and common ordinary pundits have been assuring the public that the pro-Palestinian demonstrations just like the Arab-Israeli conflict that provokes them have nothing to do with religion. Here are more photos of the kickoff of today’s banned event.
By the way, you might be wondering what the Front National has to say about all of this Islamic disturbance of the peace. You expect the FN is in the forefront, more outspoken than the prime minister and the interior minister put together. The supposedly anti-Islamization party would be shaking the gates of the Republic, calling for swift and stern action, denouncing the wimpish administration that permits what it has banned and lets the allahou akhbars drown out the Marseillaise.
Not at all. Marine Le Pen, who never hesitates to speak out when she has something to say, is inaudible on the issue of Palestine. Her silence should be deafening to her allies at the EU Parliament.
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