Pro-Palestinians mount protest as Paris hosts Tel Avi beach day

Paris’s decision to mount “Tel Aviv on Seine” for a day sparked a spat online and among politicians in a country where, with Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, sensitivities to Middle East conflict run high.

A rival “Gaza beach” was set up in Paris as pro-Palestinians protested against a Tel Aviv-themed beach day yesterday.

For its supporters, the official event was about dialogue between cultures and celebrating famously freewheeling Tel Aviv. The event, she added, was simply an attempt to bring its nickname, “the city which never sleeps”, to life more than 2,000 miles away in Paris.

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, condemned Simonnet for her calls to cancel the event and said the city’s mayor should not yield to her pressure.

For Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the event is not about politics but about people, a sentiment echoed by math teacher Rolande Remokh, who was among hundreds of Parisians and tourists attending the festival that creates an artificial beach on the Seine River.

“It is Tel Aviv that occurred the most impressive demonstrations of solidarity with the family of the child (Palestinian) burned alive by fanatics”, she saaid.

A journalist from the newspaper wrote: “The police presence, larger in number than the holiday-makers, gave an absurd and oppressive tinge to the event”. Revelers enjoyed ice cream as they danced to Israeli music played by the DJs.

“We’re here to show people the Palestinian side and to let them know about their situation”, said 24-year-old activist Fadoua El Amri, as a woman nearby passed out falafels.

“We are French before we are Jewish”, Rimokh said. “Something sinister is stirring here”.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls also tweeted his support. Warda Ben Saada, a stylist in her twenties, is sitting with friends, wearing a T-shirt smeared with fake blood and holding a doll.

Bemused locals who headed down to “Tel Aviv Sur Seine” had to manoeuvre through bag checks, security pat-downs and metal detectors to reach the small stretch of sand on the banks of the Seine. They were supposed to stop the siege in Gaza. Claire Strauss, a pro-Palestinian campaigner and non-practising Jew, says: “I’m all for people celebrating Israel at home, but its not appropriate in a public place”.

Some have asked “is Tardi anti-Semitic?” others while others are reminded that he is a big fan of, and illustrated a lot of works, of Louis-Fernand Céline, a famous french 20th century crime novelist… who definitely was.