This weekend, demonstrations regarding the Middle East conflict of diametrically opposite signs coexisted in the most important European capitals. In London and Berlin, there were rallies in favor of Israel and, despite the prohibition of some of those called, there was one in Paris in favor of Palestine, with authorization, and also in Brussels. The Gaza crisis is progressively polarizing public opinion in the Old Continent.
Thousands of people demonstrated yesterday in Berlin and London to oppose anti-Semitism and support Israel. Some of those who gathered outside Berlin's Brandenburg Gate carried Israeli flags or posters with photographs of some of the more than 200 people taken hostage by Hamas during the militants' deadly incursion into Israel on October 7.
“It is unbearable that Jews live in fear again today, precisely in our country,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the crowd. “Every attack on Jews, on Jewish institutions, is a shame for Germany. “Every attack fills me with shame and anger,” said the German president.
In London, the Board of Deputies of British Jews called a demonstration in Trafalgar Square yesterday afternoon to press for the return of more than 200 people taken hostage by Hamas. London's Metropolitan Police says it has seen a thirteen-fold increase in reports of anti-Semitic crime in October compared to last year. Reports of anti-Muslim crimes have more than doubled, according to the same sources. Yesterday's demonstrations came a day after tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters - 100,000, according to police estimates - marched through the British capital to demand that Israel stop its bombing of Gaza.
In Paris, thousands of people demonstrated yesterday in the city center to show their support for Palestine and their repudiation of the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the position of the French Government in the wake of the conflict.
The demonstration, the first to take place in France in favor of the Palestinians in the last two weeks without being prohibited by the authorities, took place in the symbolic Place de la République, the traditional setting for political and civic rallies.
In Stockholm, Sweden, more than 10,000 people gathered, including Islamists of Syrian, Turkish and Palestinian origin. They protested this Sunday against Israel and called for the abolition of their state.
Some 12,000 people, according to police estimates, gathered yesterday in the streets of Brussels in support of the civilians of Gaza and to call for an end to Israel's violent actions against the inhabitants of this Palestinian enclave.
The demonstration, organized by the Belgian-Palestinian Association, began at the Schuman roundabout, in the heart of the neighborhood, where the headquarters of the European Commission and the European Council are located, the Belga news agency reported.
