More than 180,000 people turned out on Sunday to march against antisemitism in France, after a surge in anti-Jewish incidents across the country in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Police said 105,000 people had joined the Paris march, while interior ministry figures put the nationwide figure at 182,000. Thousands of people gathered at more than 70 events across the country, including in major cities Lyon, Nice and Strasbourg.
The same slogan was adopted nationally: “For the Republic, against antisemitism.”
“Our order of the day today is… the total fight against antisemitism which is the opposite of the values of the republic,” Senate speaker Gerard Larcher, who organized the Paris demonstration with lower house speaker Yael Braun-Pivet, told broadcaster LCP before the marchers set off.
Tensions have been rising in the French capital — home to large Jewish and Muslim communities — in the wake of the October 7 massacre by Hamas on Israel, followed by a month of an Israeli ground operation aimed at destroying the terror group.
Sunday’s march packed tens of thousands of people into the setting-off point at Invalides Park, AFP journalists reported, while nearby metro stations and streets were also filled with people.
More than 3,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to maintain security.
At the front of the march were French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the two speakers and dignitaries including former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as religious leaders.
No comments:
Post a Comment