Wiesenthal Centre Christian Members Monitor Shabbat Paris Demonstration “No to Israeli Annexation!”

June 27, 2020

"Parallel events were planned across France, Europe and worldwide...The exercise is to be repeated on 1 July".

"The Centre is in contact with the appropriate Ministries in each of the sites involved.”

 

PARIS - A mass anti-Israel rally marched through central Paris - from Barbès to Nation - organized by a coalition of Palestine solidarity groups, including: Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, BDS France, Euro-Palestine, etc... with extreme left supporters and trade unions.

 

Their message: “This openly colonialist and racist regime feels ever more confident on this criminal path as world news focuses on the Coronavirus pandemic and its consequences. It hopes to deflect attention from its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.”

 

For these reasons, the organizations, engaged in the fight against racism and colonialism, called for a demonstration in Paris this Saturday 27 June... in solidarity with Palestine and its resistance."

The Centre has learned that parallel events were planned across France, in Marseille, Lille, Nice, Strasbourg, Ajaccio, Albertville, Auch, Auxerre, Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Nancy, Nimes, Rennes, Saint-Etienne... but also across Europe and worldwide, in Luxembourg, Gothenburg (Sweden), Bonn and Koblenz (Germany), Vienna (Austria), and Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples, Bologna, Cagliari, Genoa, Messina, Palermo, Siracusa, Vicenza (Italy), Santa Ana (California), Toronto (Canada).

Paris: the narrative against Israel is "Occupation, Apartheid and Boycott..." (photo credit: SWC-Europe)

 

"As usual during these rallies, there is the danger of antisemitic manifestations such as demonizing slogans and chants, the promotion of BDS, and, as in summer 2014, violence by turned on marchers peeling off to attack Jewish or presumed Jewish targets," declared Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels.

"Apart from the chants, police in riot gear kept marchers from leaving the flanks or exiting into side streets, thus this time containing violence," he continued.

 

"The exercise will be repeated on 1 July... We are in contact with the appropriate Ministries in each of the European sites involved," concluded Samuels.

 

For further information, contact Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization numbering over 400.000 members. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO).