Requested by the Palestine Action Committee – an association claiming to defend the “right to self-determination” of Palestine – the Council of State reminds the government that it is not possible to systematically ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Five days after the bloody attack perpetrated in Israel by Hamas, fearing the emergence in France of tensions linked to the conflict, in a telegram addressed to the prefects, Gérald Darmanin requested a ban on all “pro-Palestinian demonstrations”.
“It is up to the prefects alone to assess whether there is reason to prohibit a demonstration locally based on the risk of disturbing public order. No ban can be based solely on this telegram or on the sole fact that the demonstration aims to support the Palestinian population,” recalls the Council of State in a press release, Wednesday October 18.
A telegram with rough wording
“If the judge regrets the approximate wording of this telegram, he 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 it belongs to them, in the exercise of their powers, to prohibit demonstrations of support for the Palestinian cause publicly justifying or valorizing, directly or indirectly, terrorist acts such as those which were committed in Israel on October 7, 2023 by members of the organization Hamas,” said the highest administrative court.
For these reasons, “the summary judge of the Council of State considers that the telegram addressed to the prefects does not constitute a serious and manifestly illegal attack on freedom of demonstration and freedom of expression and rejects the association’s request Palestine Action Committee,” the statement concludes.
Vincent Brengarth, one of the two lawyers of the Palestine Action Committee, sees it as “a complete disavowal for the Ministry of the Interior, whose regrettable editorial clumsiness is highlighted. No systematic ban is possible on the basis of this telegram. The ministry is clearly reminded of the law by the Council of State. Asked by Agence France-Presse, the Ministry of the Interior did not wish to react.
CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, an association campaigning for the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people, launched a call for a rally in Paris on Thursday October 19. In April 2022, the Council of State suspended the execution of decrees dissolving two pro-Palestinian associations accused of “calling for hatred, discrimination, violence” and “provoking terrorist acts”.
