PARIS (EJP)---Pro-Palestinians leftist activists demonstrated Thursday against the inauguration of a David Ben-Gurion esplanade along the banks of the Seine River in central Paris by the city’s Mayor Bertrand Delanoe in the presence of Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Over the past few weeks opposition factions within the Paris municipality have protested the mayor's refusal to also commemorate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But in his address at the dedication ceremony, the mayor said he does not regret the decision to honor Ben-Gurion, insisting that he wanted this esplanade because "I assumes the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel."

"Yes Ben-Gurion was a war leader but in 1967 he said with courage: peace rather than territories," Delanoe responded to the protestors who said Ben-Gurion was responsible for the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948.

'Halt to Israeli fascism. Shame to accomplice France,' reads the banner of the protesters against the inauguration of a Ben-Gurion esplanade in Paris.

The protestors greeted Israeli president Peres and the mayor with hostile slogans such as "Peres out, murderer, Delanoe accomplice".   

A figure in the foundation of the State of Israel, David Ben Gurion (1886-1963) was the country’s first Prime Minister.

During the ceremony Peres said, "Ben-Gurion was the greatest man we have ever known. He headed a state he was not born in, managed a war before there was an army and founded a university before there were students."

"For Ben-Gurion, the most realistic thing was the vision. He used to say that a realistic person must believe in miracles," said the president.

Peres, who is on a 4-day visit to France, was due to meet Thursday afternoon with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss ways to resume Mideast peace talks.