Left-wing politicians unfurled a Palestinian flag on the Paris City Hall facade for around 30 minutes on Monday, defying Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and a French interior ministry advisory against such displays. More than 86 French towns and cities raised Palestinian flags ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s expected recognition of the state of Palestine at the UN.

Just hours before President Emmanuel Macron was set to announce France’s recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN, pro-Palestinian activists and left-wing politicians on Monday unfurled a large Palestinian flag from a Paris City Hall window.

The move was not endorsed by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and the flag was taken down after about 30 minutes.

While Macron has spearheaded a recent move, among many Western countries – including the UK, Australia and Canada – to recognise a Palestinian state, France’s hardline Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau issued a circular last week ordering prefects – the top local state-appointed officials – to oppose the flying of the flags.

“The principle of neutrality in public service prohibits such displays,” the interior ministry said, adding that any decisions by mayors to fly the Palestinian flag should be referred to courts.

At least 86 town and city halls run by leftist parties, including Lyon, Nantes, Rennes and Saint-Denis, flew Palestinian flags on their facades, according to the interior ministry.

The standoff has underlined the social and political tension in France in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas and the relentless bombardment and aid blockades by Israel on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that followed.

France is home to western Europe’s largest Jewish population, at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The Socialist Party (PS) mayors of Nantes and Rennes, big cities in western and northwestern France, were among the first to fly Palestinian flags outside their city halls to mark the occasion.

“Our responsibility is to reject silence and to do everything in our power, here and now, to put an end to the horror,” Rennes Mayor Nathalie Appéré said in a statement.

‘Historic day for peace’

The northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis also raised the Palestinian flag at a ceremony attended by Socialist Party leader Faure, who opposed Retailleau’s order and said he had written to Macron asking the president to rescind it.

“This flag is not the flag of Hamas, it is the flag of women and men who also have the right to freedom and self-determination,” he said. 

Foreign Minster Jean-Noël Barrot appeared wary of being drawn into the debate on what he described a “historic day for peace”.

“I do not want … it to be used for political polemics, to divide us at a time when, more than ever, we need to be united to be strong,” he told TF1 television.

The flags of both Israel and Palestine, as well as peace images of a dove and olive branch, were displayed late Sunday at the Eiffel Tower, which was illuminated in celebration of the recognition of the Palestinian state.

“Paris reaffirms its commitment to peace, which more than ever requires a two-state solution,” Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Bluesky.

But hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) figurehead Jean-Luc Mélenchon fulminated over the projection of the Israeli flag on the emblematic Paris landmark, saying that the “PS is betraying everyone at once”.

Acknowledging the impassioned responses caused by his decision, which have included anger from within France’s Jewish community, Macron posted a video on X on Sunday saying France wanted “peace, an immediate ceasefire and the release, without delay” of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Of the 251 people seized by Palestinian militants during their attack on Israel in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

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Sources: FRANCE 24 with AFP