2023-12-16 17:45:00
Around 400 people marched in the streets of Orléans on Saturday December 16 afternoon to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. In addition, a call to boycott Carrefour was launched, to protest against the company’s investments in Israel.
Like every Saturday, the streets of Orléans took on the colors of Palestine during the demonstration in support of the Palestinian people. A mother who wishes to remain anonymous comments: “We demonstrate every week but the Palestinians die every day.” Like every week, demonstrators of all faiths are calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“Every life counts”: in Montargis, more than 90 people showed their support for the Palestinians
The demonstration is organized by a collective of associations, political parties, and unions, including the Movement for Non-Violent Alternatives, the Loiret Palestine organization, Palestine 45, the French Jewish Union for Peace, Solidaires, the CGT . Around 400 people gathered and marched, from Place De-Gaulle to Place d’Arc, via Place du Martroi where activism rubbed shoulders with the carefree Christmas market.
“We cannot remain indifferent”
“If we come it is a little for ourselves, to keep our humanity alive. We cannot remain in indifference, nor accept inaction,” adds a woman, who recently joined the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). Coming accompanied by three friends, they comment together, not masking their emotion: “There are 20,000 Palestinian deaths in the conflict, for two million inhabitants. If we made a comparison on the scale of the French population it would be 700,000 dead.”
At the front of the procession, Sadia is not part of any association. She comes every week. “At first, we didn’t believe it, but more and more of us are there. I think people have become aware of the seriousness of things.”
Call for a boycott of a major retail brand
As the procession approaches Place d’Arc, slogans begin calling for a boycott of Carrefour. Michel, a member of the French Jewish Union for Peace and the BDS (Boycott Divestment, Sanctions) collective, explains: “Since 2005, the collective has listed companies that invest with Israel in their colonization project.”
A dispersed people: the Palestinians facing the Gaza war
The collective denounces agreements made between Carrefour and the Israeli company Electra Consumers Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan. The collective believes that the French company participates in the logistical support of operations. On December 12, Puma announced that it was ending its sponsorship of the Israel football team. The brand was then the target of a boycott, but asserts in its communication that its decision is not linked to the conflict.
Michel adds: “We are fighting non-violently against colonization. Because from the start, that is the problem, not religion.”
Sadia concludes: “In Islam it is written that to save a human is to save humanity, and that to kill a human is to kill humanity. My Islam is that of peace. This is what that we all want.”
Jeffrey Charpentier
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