Chalon-sur-Saône: Mayor Les Républicains Gilles Platret prohibits the Palestinian flag in the city

ByMuhammad

In Chalon-sur-Saône, the mayor Les Républicains Gilles Platret signed a decree prohibiting the Palestinian flag in public space for a period of three months, under the pretext of preventing “Disorders to public order”. A measure as arbitrary as symbolically heavy, immediately denounced by the France Palestine Solidarité 71 association (AFPS 71), which sees it as a disturbing shift towards the pure and simple stigmatization of a peaceful and legitimate commitment.

Intervening on BFM TV, the councilor tried to justify this prohibition by declaring: “The Palestinian flag has become a standard of revolt. He was seen in Chalon, on the Champs-Élysées, on the Alma bridge … brandished before the police, sometimes accompanied by a pavement “. He adds that this measure, supposed to calm tensions, is “proportioned” and limited to three months. An argument that struggles to mask the demagogic nature of the decision, based on a dangerous amalgam between a political and cultural symbol, and isolated violent behavior.

By prohibiting a flag – symbol of a people, an international cause, and a fight for recognition and justice -, Gilles Platret does not fight against violence: he diverts them, instrumentalizes them, and designates a scapegoat. Should we now fear that the display of all solidarity with the Palestinians will become a crime of intention? The simple lifting of a fabric here becomes a “provocation”, an “call to disorder”, even a factor of “violence” – a disturbing drift in a democracy.

The France Palestine Solidarité 71 association, located in Chalon since January 2024, recalls that the eleven demonstrations it has organized – all declared, all peaceful – were held without any incident, with the presence of the police and the press as witnesses. She is indignant to see her commitment caricatured and criminalized, in a context where the voices for a cease-fire in Gaza are multiplying, including within Jewish civil society.

“This ban is only a pretext. It has no other function than to muzzle solidarity, to diversion and to excite fears, “says the association, which calls for all citizens attached to fundamental freedoms to mobilize. THE Festi’Palestinescheduled for June 8 in Morlay, thus becomes much more than a cultural event: a collective and determined response to censorship, intimidation and arbitrariness.

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Muhammad

Muhammad is a visionary thinker and passionate writer who has been contributing to Understanding Islam for several years.