French President Emmanuel Macron leads the participants in what Paris calls “honoring the victims of the October 7 attack” from the Israelis (Reuters)
Today, Thursday, France granted about 135 Israelis detained by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, honorary citizenship of the city of Paris.
The socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced that this “symbolic protection” from the “City of Human Rights” was granted to all detainees by almost unanimous consent of local officials, with one member abstaining from approval, the day after a national celebration of what Paris called “honoring the victims of the October 7 attack.” the first".
The mayor also stated that the city of Paris will "soon" honor Palestinian civilians who "die under continuous bombardment," stressing that taking their lives "violates international law and the law of war."
The municipal council provided a financial grant of 100,000 euros to the non-governmental organization “ACTED” in the form of emergency assistance to the residents of Gaza.
Requests by communists and environmentalists to grant Palestinian civilians honorary citizenship were rejected.
Honorary citizenship is granted to the city of Paris as a gesture of support to political dissidents, human rights activists and journalists. Since its launch in 2001, it has been granted to the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015, to the city of Kiev in 2022, and to residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh region at the end of 2023.
The mayor of Paris announced, in the presence of five family members of the detainees and the Israeli ambassador to France, that four months after the Hamas attack, “every additional day in detention unfortunately reduces their chances of survival.”
She stressed that "no one can question Israel's right to exist," expressing again her "hope to negotiate a political solution based on two states."
Source: French