Paris on fire: Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters clash with French police
PARIS — Police have clashed with thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters who defied a ban in Paris on marching to protest the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Some of the protesters threw stones and other objects at riot police, who responded with rounds of tear gas.
Several climbed onto a building under construction, burning an Israeli flag. Others waved a Palestinian flag from atop a street sign.
French authorities banned a pro-Palestinian march after a protest last Sunday turned violent, with two synagogues attacked. Hundreds of riot police were out Sunday to enforce the ban.
The protesters still managed to hang banners reading “Palestine Will Live” and “Israel Assassins” in front of Montmartre’s famed basilica.
Fighting in the Mideast has enflamed tensions in France, home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish populations.