PARIS — Demonstrations of a few dozen to several hundred people erupted at multiple locations across Paris on Wednesday night to protest a pro-Israel gala that had included Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, as the evening’s featured speaker.
Smotrich canceled his trip to France to speak at the gala, a spokesperson for his party, Tzionot Datit, or Religious Zionism, told NBC News.
In the streets near Paris’ Saint Lazare station, dozens of demonstrators had gathered waving Palestinian flags and lighting flares.
By about 8 p.m., tear gas appeared to have been deployed against the crowd, with police in shields and riot gear pushing up against the protesters.
Smotrich is known for his incendiary statements and lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. On Monday he sparked widespread outrage after he publicly suggested Israel could look to annex the West Bank next year, with Donald Trump expected to take office in the U.S. in January.
He has also spoken at events advocating for the resettlement of Gaza once Israel’s offensive in the enclave comes to an end and has also been widely criticized for his anti-Arab comments, including suggestions that Palestinians “voluntarily” emigrate from the territories and that Arabs and Jews use separate maternity wards.
About 2 miles away, at Place de la République, another couple of hundred people were gathered. Palestinian and Lebanese flags were raised as people chanted “Free Palestine” in a chorus led by three demonstrators who had climbed the Monument à la République.
Police vehicles barricaded the streets surrounding the monument, with a flashing sea of blue lights nearby.
Among the protesters was Ramy Shaath, 53, a political activist and co-founder of the French organization Urgence Palestine. He said plans to host a gala in Paris with Smotrich, whom he called “one of the worst terrorists in the world,” felt “too flagrant — and it will not pass.”
Ellen Groves, 43, who is Irish and British but has lived in Paris for 20 years, said she quit her job as a copywriter after the war started to focus on speaking out about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
“I just cannot believe we live in a world where we kill children every day for 14 months and that we would knowingly bomb a trapped population,” she said, calling the war “a genocide of children in front of the world.”
“The violence we are being made to witness is the ultimate terrorism,” Groves said.
Another protest organized by Collectif Golem, a group that describes itself as a leftist Jewish movement seeking to raise awareness of antisemitism, was attended by few dozen other people and about as many police officers.
Anna Gallet, who is studying for her master’s degree in economic, social and ecological transition, said Smotrich’s invitation was tantamount to incitement.
“We think speech about a lot of hate and incitement of hate should not have a place like that here,” said Gallet, 22, who is from Montpellier, in the south of France. “We are for Jewish, Arab, Muslim people. We want peace for everyone.”
That protest ended about an hour after it began, with organizers saying local authorities shut the event down.
French human rights organizations denounced the event, whose location was not publicly disclosed, in an open letter last week, calling it a “revolting gala.” Holding it in Paris is “an insult to international law and a mark of contempt” for the United Nations, the letter added, citing the ruling by the International Court of Justice, which included calling on Israel to prevent acts of “genocide” in Gaza.
The gala was organized by a French charity called “Israel is Forever.” According to France 24, the group’s leader, French Israeli lawyer Nili Kupfer-Naouri, has said she believes no one in Gaza is “innocent” and has been accused of participating in an attempt to block the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave. She has spoken about the need to “raze Gaza” and “the mass immigration of the Arabs” from the land.
According to Israel is Forever’s flyer, the gala was meant to celebrate the “power and history of Israel,” as the country has faced mounting international backlash and isolation over its deadly war in Gaza, which was launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
More than 43,000 people have been killed and over 100,000 have been injured in Gaza, according to local health officials. The U.N. said over the weekend that women and children accounted for around 70% of those who have been killed in Gaza since the war began.
Several organizations, along with unions and political parties, planned two demonstrations in Paris on Thursday. The first began at 6 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) from Paris’ Saint-Lazare station Place de la République. “No gala for those who advocate genocide,” the organizers’ leaflet read.
The gala is being held on the eve of a soccer match between the Israeli and French national teams at Paris’ Stade de France on Thursday, as tensions remain heightened following violence in Amsterdam involving Israeli soccer fans.
Helena Muzi Cohen, a coordinator with Collectif Golem, said the group wanted to show that Smotrich’s views and those of Israel is Forever do not “represent Jewish people on a global scale.”
“We are totally against everything that’s happening in Gaza,” Muzi Cohen said, noting that her organization, which was founded roughly a year ago, has advocated for a cease-fire and the release of hostages who remain held by Hamas in the enclave.
During a previous Israel is Forever gala in March 2023, Smotrich asserted that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
The statement drew widespread rebuke at the time, including from U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who said, “We utterly object to that kind of language,” and the Palestinian Authority, who called it “racist” and “an attempt to falsify history.”
