Last Saturday there was a sizable (twenty to twenty-five thousand people according to various counts) protest in support of Palestine and, often, against Israel. Esther and I decided to go to see what there was to see. Thankfully I brought my camera as the situation, tense throughout, degraded considerably at the end.
The march started at Place de la République and progressed down the Grands Boulevards to Place St. Augustin.
This was a surprising route for any protest march as it passes directly in front of the "Grands Magasins", major banks, and plenty of very expensive real estate. Normally, protests (of which there are many) are routed towards more modest districts.
The anger towards Israel was evident in the crowd.
The chant "Israel, Assassin!" was popular, as was the swastika/Star of David equivalence.
Protesters carried pictures of dead and injured Palestinian children and adults, as well as at least one mock dead child.
I was surprised to see several Hezbollah flags on display. Paris has a large Lebanese population and apparently a certain number of supporters of the paramilitary organization.
The advertisement in the background for the Tribune Juive (Jewish Tribune, a magazine for the French Jewish commonity) featured Carla Bruni, the wife of President Sarkozy, and was not particularly popular with the protesters.
Further down the route, slogans began to be spray-painted on many different surfaces.
There was an interesting conflation of causes as the flag of Hezbollah (literally, "the party of God") came into close proximity with the flag and secretary general of the PCF (Parti Communiste Français, not exactly the party of God).
As we got closer to the Grands Magasins and some larger bank branches, the police presence visibly increased.
Eventually we arrived at Place St. Augustin, the scheduled end of the march.
A young man carried the flag of Hamas as others prayed. Things started off rather peacefully.
Unfortunately, trouble-makers in the crowd had other ideas for how to end things. They started by climbing scaffolding attached to a building.
This led to tear gas.
Which, in turn, led to fire set by the protesters.
Smoke rose over the square.
Riot police began to advance, passing in front of the Saint Augustine Church, confining the protesters and forcing them out of the square.
We learned that the fuel for the fire was the French classic: a car that had the bad luck of being parked in the wrong place at the wrong time.
More police arrived in full riot gear. They needed to clear the area to allow the firefighters to arrive safely.
Ultimately the firefighters made it through...
...though it was a bit late for the car.
Meanwhile, other cars were overturned and burned.
The square was left strewn with banners and ashes.
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