PARIS: France on Thursday said it was banning all pro-Palestinian demonstrations after the bloody attack on Israel by Hamas, on the grounds such protests threaten public order.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a note to regional prefects that the demonstrations "are likely to generate disturbances to public order", adding that organisers should face arrest as well as any troublemakers.
In defiance of his order, several hundred people had gathered in the central Place de la Republique in Paris shouting pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli slogans, AFP correspondents said.
Darmanin had told French media earlier that over 100 "anti-Semitic acts" had been recorded in France since the attack by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, with 24 people arrested.
In his order to prefects, Darmanin also reiterated his request that foreigners guilty of any anti-Semitic offence or of advocating terrorism should have their residence permit "systematically withdrawn" and expelled "without delay" from France.
France bans pro-Palestinian protests after Hamas attack
https://arab.news/m3w9f
France bans pro-Palestinian protests after Hamas attack
- The demonstrations "are likely to generate disturbances to public order"
- Several hundred people had gathered in the central Place de la Republique in Paris shouting pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli slogans
Bangladesh’s religio-political party open to unity govt
- Opinion polls suggest that Jamaat-e-Islami will finish a close second to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the first election it has contested in nearly 17 years
DHAKA: A once-banned Bangladeshi religio-political party, poised for its strongest electoral showing in February’s parliamentary vote, is open to joining a unity government and has held talks with several parties, its chief said.
Opinion polls suggest that Jamaat-e-Islami will finish a close second to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the first election it has contested in nearly 17 years as it marks a return to mainstream politics in the predominantly Muslim nation of 175 million.
Jamaat last held power between 2001 and 2006 as a junior coalition partner with the BNP and is open to working with it again.
“We want to see a stable nation for at least five years. If the parties come together, we’ll run the government together,” Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman said in an interview at his office in a residential area in Dhaka, days after the party created a buzz by securing a tie-up with a Gen-Z party.
Rahman said anti-corruption must be a shared agenda for any unity government.
The prime minister will come from the party winning the most seats in the Feb. 12 election, he added. If Jamaat wins the most seats, the party will decide whether he himself would be a candidate, Rahman said.
The party’s resurgence follows the ousting of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a youth-led uprising in August 2024.
Rahman said Hasina’s continued stay in India after fleeing Dhaka was a concern, as ties between the two countries have hit their lowest point in decades since her downfall.
Asked about Jamaat’s historical closeness to Pakistan, Rahman said: “We maintain relations in a balanced way with all.”
He said any government that includes Jamaat would “not feel comfortable” with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who was elected unopposed with the Awami League’s backing in 2023.
