© AFPMan with Palestinian flag placard, as protesters gather in Paris, France, July 19, 2014.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched in French cities on Saturday to condemn violence in Gaza,
defying a ban imposed after demonstrators marched on two synagogues in Paris last weekend and clashed with riot police.
A Reuters photographer said demonstrators in northern Paris
launched projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing teargas canisters and stun grenades.
Demonstrators also climbed on top of a building and
burned an Israeli flag. At least one car was set on fire.
A police spokesman said that
38 demonstrators had been arrested by early evening and that the clashes were dying down.
French President Francois Hollande said he understood emotional responses to the killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in a flare-up of hostilities with Israel but would not allow violence to spill over into France.
"That's why I asked the interior minister, after an investigation,
to ensure that such protests would not take place," he told journalists during a visit to Chad.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve justified bans in Paris, the Sarcelles suburb and the Mediterranean city of Nice by saying
the security risk was too great, prompting outrage from left-wing and pro-Palestinian groups.
Comment: "Security risk too great"? Yeah, Israel's global propaganda campaign gets a little more insecure every time the murder another Palestinian child. An informed populace is Israel's greatest danger. Shame on the French government for this spineless ban.