Police clashed violently here yesterday afternoon with pro-Arab demonstrators who tried to march through the streets of Paris in spite of a police ban. Some 300 people, Including French writer Jean Genet, were detained and more than 20 were wounded. French left-wing organizations and the Union of Arab Students in France had called for two simultaneous demonstrations; one to protest the explosion which earlier this month seriously injured Mahmoud Hamshari, the Paris representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the other to protest against “the anti-Arab racial attitude of the French police.”
It was the latter demonstration, attended by some 500 people, which violently clashed with several hundred helmeted and baton-swinging riot police. The marchers, led by left-wing leaders Alain Geismar and philosopher Michel Foucault, were finally dispersed and many arrested before they managed to reach the Ministry of Justice–their main target. Some of the most violent fighting took place in front of the Jewish Communal Building on the Blvd. de la Bonne Nouvelle.
The other demonstration, dealing more specifically with the Hamshari explosion, did not clash with the police after the organizers announced that they would not try to reach the center of the city. The demonstrators, headed by the Trotskyist leader Alain Krivine, chanted for several hours, “Israelis are murderers,” and “Israel withdraw.” Huge banners branded Israel as an “imperialist aggressor.” Many of the participants, including Geismar and Krivine, are Jewish. The same organizers have called for a protest meeting for next Thursday in Paris’ huge “Salle de la Mutualite.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
