lennart
17-02-04, 16:51
PARIS, February 17 (IslamOnline.net) - "Katsav the Killer of Children" and "Katsav the thief of Lands" are some of many slogans that welcomed Israeli President Moshe Katsav on the start of his three-day visit to France on Monday, February 16.
Coming in droves to the Bastille Square, French Jews, Palestinians and women dressed in black seized Katsav's visit to denounce the controversial separation wall Israel is building in the West Bank, which snakes through vast swathes of Palestinian lands.
"It is surely a black day when an Israeli president treads the French soil," said one woman in black.
The black color "is a telling example of the appalling conditions suffered by the mothers of the Palestinian prisoners and the mothers of the Israeli soldiers. Now the Israeli apartheid wall is another black page", she added.
"A red-carpet reception for Katsav: Shame on the government," read one of the several placards.
Katsav's visit is the second by an Israeli head of state since 1988.
The famous Paris avenue Champs-Elysees has been decked out with blue-and-white Israeli flags fluttering next to the red-white-and-blue ones of France.
Persona Non-Grata
Jews and Palestinians joined hands and called for tearing down the Israeli separation wall.
Richard Wagman, the president of the French Jewish Federation for Peace, told IslamOnline.net that their participation in the rally is an unmistakable message that French Jews see Katsav as a persona non-grata as Israel continues to deny the Palestinians their legitimate right to self-determination.
He said his organization is drumming up support for an international campaign aimed at forcing Israel to demolish its West Bank wall.
(...)
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-02/17/article07.shtml
Coming in droves to the Bastille Square, French Jews, Palestinians and women dressed in black seized Katsav's visit to denounce the controversial separation wall Israel is building in the West Bank, which snakes through vast swathes of Palestinian lands.
"It is surely a black day when an Israeli president treads the French soil," said one woman in black.
The black color "is a telling example of the appalling conditions suffered by the mothers of the Palestinian prisoners and the mothers of the Israeli soldiers. Now the Israeli apartheid wall is another black page", she added.
"A red-carpet reception for Katsav: Shame on the government," read one of the several placards.
Katsav's visit is the second by an Israeli head of state since 1988.
The famous Paris avenue Champs-Elysees has been decked out with blue-and-white Israeli flags fluttering next to the red-white-and-blue ones of France.
Persona Non-Grata
Jews and Palestinians joined hands and called for tearing down the Israeli separation wall.
Richard Wagman, the president of the French Jewish Federation for Peace, told IslamOnline.net that their participation in the rally is an unmistakable message that French Jews see Katsav as a persona non-grata as Israel continues to deny the Palestinians their legitimate right to self-determination.
He said his organization is drumming up support for an international campaign aimed at forcing Israel to demolish its West Bank wall.
(...)
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-02/17/article07.shtml