Paris City Counselor Wants To Cancel ‘Tel Aviv Sur Seine’ Festival
Image by Getty Images
A French watchdog against anti-Semitism condemned a Paris city council member who called to cancel a city festival dedicated to Tel Aviv.
One day of the week-long Paris Plages festival, which will turn the banks of the Seine river into a beach and this year will devote each day to a beach in another country, is scheduled to be “Tel Aviv Sur Seine.” Food, music and activities on the designated day, Aug. 13, are to be devoted to Tel Aviv culture.
Left-wing council member Danielle Simonnet has objected to the celebration of an Israeli city, and on Monday in an interview on French Inter radio called instead for turning the day into “a peace protest, in support of fraternity, in support of the fight against all forms of racism and anti-Semitism, and to back recognition of the Palestinian state.”
Simonnet, who has represented Paris’ 20th district – which has a large Arab population – for the last seven years, said the day-long festival “sends a very bad message,” and that: “For the Israeli government, this is a nice bit of PR that Paris is serving up on a plate.”
The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, on Sunday condemned Simonnet for her calls to cancel the event and called on the city’s mayor not to yield to her pressure.
The pro-Palestinian group CAPJPO-Europalestine has called for protests of the event if it is not cancelled.
BNVCA said it has asked the Paris police commissioner to bolster security during the festival day devoted to Tel Aviv out of fear of anti-Semitic attacks.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
