In Paris, the inauguration of a "Jerusalem Square" is controversial

For lack of a street name, which she lost 136 years ago, Jerusalem will give its name, Sunday, June 30, to a Parisian place. At 4 pm, the City of Paris will inaugurate the "Place de Jérusalem", at the intersection of rue de Courcelles and boulevard de Reims, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.

Announced at the beginning of the week, the decision quickly turned to controversy, opposing the mayor of Paris to its allies ecologists and communists, as well as associations propalestiniennes.

🗓 The inauguration of the Place de Jérusalem will take place this Sunday at 3:30 pm at the intersection of rue de Courcelles and boulevard de Reims # Paris17 pic.twitter.com/g4dO1X7mjh

However, presented on April 15 in the naming committee, the proposal was initially not a problem. "No comments, no contradictory debate," recalls Catherine Vieu-Charier, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of the file.

Only later, during the deliberation elaborated in Council of Paris, that the communist elected, also president of the commission of attribution of the names of streets, places, green spaces and municipal establishments, has generated some reluctance, mainly from the communist and ecologist groups. Frightened at the idea of ​​baptizing a place of this name without insisting more on the conflicts that cross the city of Jerusalem - what Catherine Vieu-Charier refused - the two groups, who have since asked the mayor of Paris to give up at its decision, they had chosen to abstain.

Strongly opposed to this attribution, Danielle Simonnet, elected insubordinate France of the 20th arrondissement, had meanwhile proposed that be added, under the words "Place of Jerusalem", a precision: "With the vow that it becomes the future capital of two States ". Amendment rejected. Danielle Simonnet decides to vote against the general text. "From that moment, the controversy has begun," laments Catherine Vieu-Charier.

"I agree with the substance of the problem," she says. "I, of course, defend a just and lasting Palestinian state, but this [Danielle Simonnet's proposal] would open Pandora's box and everything would then be controversial."

"Universal city that belongs to all"

This is not the first time Jerusalem has given its name to a place in the capital since a Jerusalem street has existed. Named after the Middle Ages, the Parisian thoroughfare along Notre-Dame was destroyed in 1883 during the expansion of the courthouse.

According to Catherine Vieu-Charier, the re-assignment of the name of Jerusalem to a street in Paris was the subject of several requests and had long been among the projects of the municipality. "Some argue that the request for the current decision would come from Joel Mergui [president of the Consistoire Central Israelite de France, Ed], but if he made the request, he made it as anyone would have could do it. "

If the communiqué of the City of Paris underlines "the very strong link that exists between Paris and Jerusalem, whose old city is inscribed on the World Heritage of Humanity", the attribution of this name was presented, in a letter addressed by the mayor of Paris to Joel Mergui (which he then shared in a tweet), in different terms. Anne Hidalgo justifies this decision by the need, "in this period of recrudescence of racist and anti-Semitic acts", to recall the links between Paris and the Jewish "community", and to "commemorate the friendship that unites the city of Paris and the State of Israel ".

A letter to which the president of the Central Consistory responded, revealing that this decision "follows on [his] proposal expressed in January, at the reception of the President of the Republic of Israel Reuven Rivlin at the City Hall."

I thank the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the Paris Council and the 17th Arrondissement Council for their decision today to name a "Jerusalem Square" in the 17th arrondissement of Paris https: // t .co / 0280noImCz pic.twitter.com/KqxIt5Da7J

Fusing the "political" character of this inauguration, opponents of the denomination see a favor given to the Israeli authorities. Danielle Simonnet, in a statement shared on her Twitter account, denounced a "political mistake", evoking the presence on Sunday of Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, "a fervent defender of the annexation of East Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement policy. ".

Place Jerusalem in Paris: a political mistake by the municipal majority in defiance of international law, peace and fraternity between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples! pic.twitter.com/vSfuHoFVV4

An invitation that justifies Catherine Vieu-Charier by the "protocol". "When we do this inauguration style, it is normal for the mayor of the city in question to be invited, because he is concerned," she explains, adding that other personalities have also been invited to attend. like the representative of Palestine in France, and representatives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

"Jerusalem is a universal city that belongs to all, it is beyond controversy," she adds, referring to "the eternal Jerusalem", rooted in world culture for centuries. "We will not forbid ourselves to pronounce the word 'Jerusalem' because there is a conflict, there has been since the Middle Ages", explains the communist elect, recalling that the intention is not not to argue, but "to put Jerusalem back in Paris".

"Manipulation of the town hall"

On the initiative of the collective Ni wars, no state of war, supported by the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) and many organizations, a rally is planned, instead of Marshal June, on the sidelines of the inauguration of the square. The stated aim is to protest a decision that "echoes the American decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel".

The attribution of the name of "place of Jerusalem" is "a manipulation of the City hall of Paris", affirms Adrien, member of the organizing committee of the organizing collective. "It claims to depoliticize the debate while at the same time justifying a violation of international law at a time when the United States itself is participating in this violation by moving its embassy to occupied Jerusalem."

By this call to protest, the collective, which Sunday Sunday several hundred people, including Danielle Simonnet, intends to "organize the fight to remind that this decision does not engage the French people or Parisians," said Adrien.

On the side of the City, Catherine Vieu-Charier is serene. "I know there will be people demonstrating, but it's an absolute right," she says. According to the latter, the event on Sunday should not be amalgam. "We can not mix everything, and this event is also a way to reaffirm the will of the mayor of Paris who has always been in favor of two states in a just and lasting peace. opportunity to recall at the time of the inauguration of the venue. "

A place whose first minutes as "place of Jerusalem" are heckling. "I do not think that the other cities that are present in the Parisian cartography are the subject for 52 years of United Nations resolutions for war crimes", affirmed with determination the member of the collective Ni wars, nor state of war. "Obviously this decision is political."