2023-11-12 20:56:02
The violence of small ultra-right groups based in Lyon escalated on the evening of Saturday, November 11. Around fifty individuals, mostly hooded, attacked an association premises, near the Saint-Georges church, in the Vieux-Lyon district. The action targeted the Maison des passages, where the conference on the situation in Gaza organized by the Palestine 69 Collective was taking place.
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The attack, carried out with iron bars and mortars, was claimed on social networks, by several videos posted on the Telegram channel “West casual”, regularly relaying the actions of the ultra-right movement. A photo from this social network shows around thirty activists dressed in black, their faces blurred, posing on rue Victor-Hugo, in the Lyon peninsula. This group, called Guignol squad, prides itself on “day of mobilization for Lyon nationalists”, by taking several actions. He mentions clashes with “antifa”during an anti-fascist demonstration which took place in the afternoon, as well as the action against “a pro-Palestine conference”. A video shows the group leaving the scene of the attack on the association premises in the Saint-Georges district, chanting the slogan “the street, France belongs to us”.
The events occurred shortly after 7 p.m. “I heard loud noises and screams. At first, I didn’t really understand what was happening. Participants managed to close the front door. They stacked tables and chairs to prevent intrusion. The attackers hit them with iron bars, they threw mortars towards the windows,” testifies to the Monde Jérôme Faÿnel, organizer of the conference which brought together around a hundred people. The head of the Palestine 69 Collective was present at the podium alongside Christophe Oberlin, pro-Palestinian activist and doctor who worked in Gaza. This former candidate for the European elections in 2004 on the Euro-Palestine list was invited to describe the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
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According to Mr. Faÿnel, the attack lasted “more than half an hour”. After a first intrusion attempt, reinforcements swelled the ranks of nationalist activists, according to another witness to the scene. “The impunity of far-right militias must end,” estimates the person responsible for Palestine 69, who found “the police reaction time a little long, after several calls”time which he estimates at “more than half an hour” waiting. The prefecture points « 13 minutes »and refutes any delay in the police intervention which followed the reports.
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