Pro-Palestinian march in Paris ahead of Netanyahu visit
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on Saturday staged a protest in Paris against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned visit to France on Sunday.
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Protestors carried Palestinian flags and photos of French President Emmanuel Macron marked “accomplice” for hosting Netanyahu following the U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Netanyahu, who has welcomed Trump’s move, will meet with Macron on Sunday ahead of a meeting with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
France said on Friday the United States had sidelined itself in the Middle East by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on French TV that the U.S. move went “against international law”.
“Trump says he has a project. Let him present it, so that this intervention can be wiped out by the restart of the peace process,” he said.
Macron and Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan will work together to try to persuade the United States to reconsider the decision, a Turkish presidential source said on Saturday.
France has been a supporter of the Palestinian cause. In 2014, the French National Assembly passed a non-binding motion calling on the government to recognize Palestine, but the government has not officially done so.
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