About 150 pro-Hamas militants gathered Sunday at a rally in Ivry-sur-Seine, near Paris, and called on France to resume its financial support to the Palestinian government. A Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) official managed to attend the demonstration despite the fact that the group is on the EU's list of terror organisations.
The militants were barred from using the local community centre following harsh criticism by the Jewish community.
Initially, Hamas spokesman to the Palestinian parliament Salah Bardawil was supposed to participate in the rally organised by a French support group PPRSM (Palestinian People Resistance Support Movement) but the French government decided to bar him from entering the country, following EU's policy to cut all contacts with members of the terror group until it recognises Israel and renounces violence.
Organisers were denied the use of a municipal centre Robespierre Hall by the mayor of Ivry, Pierre Gosnat, following harsh criticism by the Jewish umbrella organisation CRIF and by MPs Claude Goasguen and Patrick Gaubert who is also chairman of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA).
The same MPs have recently called on the government to intervene and bar entry to Hamas officials when they were invited to France by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg and for a Euro-Arab conference in the Arab World Institute in Paris in presence of Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and Mahmoud Abbas.
A PFLP official, Rabah Mhanna, was expected in the rally by local pro-Palestinian militants and an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades member was to address the assembly by video conference.
Hamas supporters present at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ press conference on Friday in Paris said Mhanna had entered France and they distributed his message condemning Abbas and his disapproval of terror acts.
Call for continued resistance
The message also rejected the idea endorsed by President Chirac of a new fund for Palestinians that could be managed by the World Bank, saying it was “a way of accepting the pressures applied on the Palestinian people.”
“The popular Palestinian forces are determined to continue the resistance until their legitimate goals of liberation and independence are achieved,” added the message attributed to Rabah Mhanna.
The Sunday rally was scheduled for 2.30pm at the Robespierre hall, but following the city’s decision demonstrators gathered outside of the nearby metro station.
According to EJP sources the militants waved Palestinian flags and held two streamers with the words “Stop Jewish Occupation” on one and “100% Hamas” on the second.
The Palestinian People Resistance Support Movement denounced the decision to ban the rally, saying the mayor had bowed to pressure from LICRA but tried to gather as many people as possible by distributing flyers and sending messages on the web.
"No to the food for surrender program," was written on one of the flyers.
The European Union has recently decided to freeze dialogue and direct support to the Hamas-led Palestinian government until it recognizes Israel and renounces violence.
Ivry's mayor explained in a press release that he decided to ban the rally because his town "refuses the language of hatred from any side."
He recalled that Ivry "has had in the past the honour of launching numerous demonstrations in favour of the Palestinian people."