2023-10-18 19:58:17
Gérald Darmanin disowned. On the eve of a new call for a rally in Paris, the Council of State ruled in favor on Wednesday of the Palestine Action Committee, which had filed an interim relief contesting the ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations ordered by the Minister of the Interior .
The Council of State reminded the government that pro-Palestinian demonstrations could not be systematically prohibited and that it was up to the prefects alone to assess whether there was a local risk of disturbances to public order.
“It is up to the prefects alone to assess whether there is reason to prohibit a demonstration locally”
In a telegram addressed to the prefects on October 12 by Gérald Darmanin, five days after the bloody attack perpetrated in Israel by Hamas, instructions were given to prohibit “pro-Palestinian demonstrations, because they are likely to generate unrest in public order “.
But the Council of State, urgently contacted by a pro-Palestinian association, ruled: “it is up to the prefects alone to assess whether there is reason to prohibit a demonstration locally based on the risks of disturbances to public order “. “No ban can be based solely on this telegram (from the minister) or on the sole fact that the demonstration aims to support the Palestinian population,” argued the highest administrative court in its press release.
It remains that “if the judge regrets the approximate wording of this telegram”, he nevertheless notes “that the representatives of the State at the hearing, but also the public declarations of the minister, have clarified his intention: to remind the prefects that he it is up to them, in the exercise of their powers, to prohibit demonstrations of support for the Palestinian cause publicly justifying or promoting, directly or indirectly, terrorist acts such as those which were committed in Israel on October 7, 2023 by members of the Hamas organization,” adds the Council of State in its press release.
In his decision, however, he recalls that demonstrations “having the aim, directly or indirectly, of supporting Hamas (…) of justifying or promoting abuses such as those of October 7, 2023 (…) are likely to lead to unrest to public order”.
A risk of importing the conflict?
The Palestine Action Committee saw in this text “a succession of confusions if not amalgamations”, akin to a “prohibition in principle and absolute”, which constitutes “a serious attack on freedom of expression” , in the words of Me Vincent Brengarth, one of his lawyers.
Tuesday, during the examination of the appeal to the Council of State, Pascale Léglise, director of public liberties and legal affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, replied that the telegram is “not normative” but gives “information instructions” to the prefects who “take out prohibitions with detailed justifications”.
In substance, she also mentioned the risks of importing the conflict into France, citing “2,500 reports of anti-Semitic acts (received on the Pharos reporting platform) of which 233 have led to legal proceedings” since the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, but also the risks according to her that individuals infiltrate the processions to advocate terrorism.
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