Police in Paris banned an anti-Israel protest rally scheduled for Oct. 7 amid fears that it would become a celebration of the third anniversary of the 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel, the top police officer of the French capital’s region said on Tuesday.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez instructed police to ban the rally, which organizers were preparing under the banner: “Against the genocide in Gaza and for respect of the ceasefire” on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, the office of Patrice Faure, the prefect of police of the Paris region, wrote in a statement.
“This date marks the third anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel and will give rise to numerous commemorations. In a context of heightened terrorist threat and while antisemitic acts remain at a historically high level in our country, such a demonstration on that day poses significant risks of disturbances to public order. In light of this, in particular, and in view of all the risks identified, my responsibility is to ensure the safety of all. I have therefore decided to prohibit this demonstration,” Fauret’s office quoted him as saying.
Separately, a French lawmaker in the European Parliament accused a fellow lawmaker from France, the anti-Israeli activist Rima Hassan of the far-left LFI party, of desecrating the Israeli flag in front of a memorial commemoration for the victims of the massacre.
“Tonight, on the occasion of a commemoration of Oct. 7, in front of the photos of the victims of the massacre, Rima Hassan threw the European flag and the Israeli flag to the ground. The message is perfectly clear. The condemnation must be as well,” François-Xavier Bellamy of the Republicans party said during a speech in the European Parliament on Tuesday. Hassan did this at the seat of the European Parliament in Brussels, he said, calling this “complicity with those who seek, including in Europe, to import antisemitic hatred once more into Europe.”
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said on Monday that anti-Israel activists were expected to hold events worldwide around the anniversary.
During the first two weeks of October, the ministry identified 262 events in 37 countries. About one-third of the events posed a medium or high level of risk, according to the ministry’s National Situation Room.
