PARIS (AP) — Some French mayors have defied government orders and flown Palestinian flags on town halls, with more expected to follow suit as France prepares to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly.
It's unclear how many cities will join the initiative on Monday after Socialist leader Olivier Faure's call to fly the flags despite warnings from the Interior Ministry against such displays in a country with both Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim populations.
But the call has been gaining momentum as Palestinian flags have been more and more visible in France over the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
Palestinian banners were on display in demonstrations this week during a big day of protests across the country that criticized several polices by French President Emmanuel Macron and his government.
The Palestinian flag has been flying at the town hall of Malakoff, a suburb of Paris, since Friday. The city mayor, Jacqueline Belhomme, told The Associated Press on Sunday she was ordered to take it down but refused to comply.
"We stand with the Palestinian people; it is something symbolically important, just as we did some time ago with the Ukrainian flag when we stood with the Ukrainian people who were under attack by Russia.”
In southwestern France, the communist mayor of Mauléon-Licharre, a town of 3,000 residents, raised a Palestinian flag on Friday but removed it the next day after the case was referred to an administrative court.
"The flag is now in my office. This is an attack on my freedom of thought,” mayor Louis Labadot told local radio station Ici Pays Basque.
The war in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict are expected to be at the top of the agenda of world leaders at their annual gathering at the U.N. General Assembly starting Monday. The Palestinians had said they hope at least 10 more countries will recognize the state of Palestine, adding to the more than 145 countries that already do.
On Sunday, Canada, Australia and the U.K. all formally recognised a Palestinian state.
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower lit up as the Palestinian and Israeli flags, separated by a dove symbolizing peace, were projected onto the monument.
Mathieu Hanotin, the mayor of Saint-Denis, the Paris suburb hosting the national soccer stadium, said he will fly the Palestinian flag in a solidarity gesture with the Palestinian people.
In western France, the city of Nantes also plans to raise the Palestinian flag on the city hall building, Mayor Johanna Rolland, a Socialist, told France information “For municipalities that wish to join, through a symbolic gesture, France’s recognition of the state of Palestine, I believe it makes sense. I will do so without hesitation,” she said.
In a note sent to the State’s representative in regions, France’s Interior Ministry instructed them to oppose the display of Palestinian flags on town halls and other public buildings, citing the risks of importing an ongoing international conflict onto national territory.
“The principle of neutrality in public service prohibits such displays,” the ministry said, adding that any decisions by mayors to fly the Palestinian flag should be referred to administrative courts.
"The front of a town hall is not a billboard. Only the tricolor flag — our colors, our values — has the right to be represented in what remains, for us, a common home,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Saturday.
Ian Brossat, a spokesman for the French Communist Party, accused Retailleau of contradicting France’s official position.
“The interior minister disagrees with French diplomacy. He does not support the recognition of a Palestinian state, unlike the president,” Brossat told BFM TV. “By asserting his personal beliefs instead of upholding the position of the French Republic, which is to recognize a Palestinian state, he is taking France and its diplomacy hostage.”
In June, Nice city mayor Christian Estrosi, who had put on display Israeli flags on the Riviera city’s town hall to show his support for hostages held by Hamas, was forced by a court decision to remove them.
The Socialist mayor of Paris suburb Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane, said he would display both the Israeli and Palestinian flags on the facade of his town hall in a bid to carry a message of peace.
“We are one community, the republican community,” he told RMC radio. “The community I stand for is that of peace: I do not want to pit Muslims against Jews, nor activists against Hamas supporters and those against (Benjamin) Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.”
