Paris awards honorary citizenship to Palestinian civilians, journalists

PARIS: The City of Paris on Thursday granted honorary citizenship to Palestinian civilians and journalists, in a symbolic gesture of support for “the suffering the Palestinian people”.

“Honorary citizenship is not just a symbol, but a commitment to peace. We are extending a hand to an entire people,” Emmanuel Gregoire, the capital’s Socialist mayor, said before the Council of Paris.

He spoke in the presence of the Palestinian representative in France, Hala Abou-Hassira, who received a long round of applause.

“Recognising the suffering of the Palestinian people in no way erases that of the Israeli people,” said Gregoire.

“We will never forget October 7, 2023,” he added, stressing that the French capital had earlier granted honorary citizenship to the hostages of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

A resolution adopted by the Council of Paris said “the humanitarian situation of Gaza’s population remains dramatic”.

The right voted against the resolution, pointing to a resurgence of antisemitic acts in France.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

It sparked the war in Gaza, where a ceasefire in effect since October last year has largely halted fighting.

The war has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble, with an estimated death toll of more than 73,000 people, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Last week, Paris hosted a meeting of Palestinian and Israeli civil society groups, who urged global leaders to take urgent action and help implement a permanent ceasefire.

France as well as Britain, Canada and several other countries recognised a Palestinian state last year. Paris has earlier bestowed honorary citizenship on the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Ukrainian capital Kyiv