France’s Council of State reminded the government on Wednesday that pro-Palestinian demonstrations cannot be systematically banned and that assessing the risk of disruption to local public order is the exclusive competence of prefects, AFP reported.

A cable sent to prefects on October 12 by Gerald Darmanin, five days after a bloody attack by Hamas in Israel, instructed them to ban “pro-Palestinian demonstrations because they could cause a breach of public order”.

But the State Council, which received an emergency appeal from a pro-Palestinian association, decided: “It is the prefects’ exclusive competence to assess whether there are grounds for a local ban on a demonstration based on the risk of public order disruption. “

“No ban can be based solely on this cable (of the interior minister) or on the simple fact that the demonstration is aimed at supporting the Palestinian population,” the top administrative court said in a statement.

However, “although the judge regrets the crude wording of this telegram,” he notes that “state representatives at the hearing, as well as the minister’s public statements, made clear his intention: to remind the prefects that it is their responsibility, in the exercise of their powers, to prohibit demonstrations on supporting the Palestinian cause, who publicly justify or promote, directly or indirectly, terrorist acts, such as those committed in Israel on October 7, 2023 by members of the Hamas organization,” the State Council added in its statement.

In his decision, he nevertheless emphasizes that the alleged demonstrations “whose purpose is, directly or indirectly, to support Hamas (…) or to justify or facilitate acts of violence similar to those committed on October 7, 2023 ( …). cause public order”.