A vast crowd gathered on a recent Saturday near a French commercial exposition, rallying for an end to hostilities stimulated by war capitalism and against Israel’s ongoing operations in Gaza. The protest was part of a series of rallies engulfing this event. Moreover, the event coincides with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, which is now stretched into day nine, with Iran cautioning about a robust response to Israel’s attacks on its staunch adversary. The participation of Israeli defense companies in the exhibition has stirred controversy, with the French authorities responding earlier this week by closing the exhibit stalls of five Israeli companies, citing the exhibit of aggressive weaponry potentially deployable in Gaza.
The protest banner at the forefront of the demonstration displayed strong messages like ‘Their wars, their profits, our deaths, stop the genocide in Palestine’. The organizers of the march estimated that it attracted over 4,000 participants. One such protestor spoke up about the current situation, voice filled with despair and frustration about the lack of intervention. Nora, a 29-year-old project leader in the Pharma sector, remarked to AFP amid the protest that people were losing their lives while governments failed to act.
Clad in the colours of the Palestinian flag, Nora expressed her indignation towards the haunting images that were being broadcasted from Gaza, that even included ‘mothers bidding their final goodbyes to their children’ in the war-torn Palestinian region. Amid the escalating protest, law enforcement officials have apprehended seven individuals alleged to have intentions of disrupting the trade show. Among the items found during their search were a helium canister and close to 200 balloons.
Six of these detentions occurred on Friday while the remaining arrest was conducted on Saturday. The Paris Air Show, hosted at Le Bourget airfield, have attracted immense attention each day. Located a mere nine kilometers north of the Parisian city center, the airfield witnesses about 100,000 intrigued visitors each day. Under normal circumstances, the air show’s limelight would be captured by the aerospace industry’s latest and most advanced aircraft.
However, the recent decision to close the exhibits of several Israeli Aerospace Industries such as IAI, Rafael, UVision and Elbit, in addition to drone, and guided bomb and missile manufacturer, Aeronautics, served as a spark to ignite a dispute with Israel. The objection came to head when the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, vehemently condemned the decision of Paris to shut down the Israeli companies’ exhibits at the trade fair.
Herzog astonishingly equated Paris’s action to the creation of an ‘Israeli ghetto’, an outrageous assertion in his own words. This move by France follows closely after Israel, based on intelligence that Iran was inching towards nuclear-weapon possession, initiated a sudden attack on June 13. During the attack, several high-ranking Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists were reportedly killed.
In retaliation, Iran immediately launched a barrage of missiles against Israel in response to the surprise attack. The cycle then continued, with both nations locked in a series of destructive reciprocal strikes. Amid the geopolitical tensions, the demonstration outside the Paris Air Show has become a symbol of citizens’ opposition to perceived warfare for the sake of profit and the ongoing Israeli operations in Gaza.