Real Tel Aviv way more fun than its Paris tribute, lament visitors

As French police swamped the Tel Aviv Beach installation on the bank of the Seine in France, the nearby pro-Palestinian protest (“Gaza Beach”) remained quite civil and peaceful, but the whole event, some visitors say, lost its appeal.

“I thought I would find the atmosphere of Tel Aviv here, the beach, the music; but all I see is police officers and barriers extending for meters away,” Michelle Alia, a local woman tells French paper Le Monde.

Alia, however, expressed understanding for the apparent police hysteria: “Having heard ‘Death to Jews’ when I lived in Sarcelles, I find it normal that security will be deployed here in such a manner. But we would not need it if not for the great disagreement [over the installation].”

Meanwhile, at the “Gaza Beach” area, which is not sponsored by the Paris municipality, the atmosphere is belligerent, Le Monde reports. Activists are giving away pamphlets, holding signs including photos of baby Ali Dawabsha, and the words “Hidalgo, sponsor of colonialism,” referring to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

One woman calls passersby over to offer them homemade falafel balls. She vows to stick around until the Tel Aviv installation folds up. “We need to show that we exist, the Palestinians are completely forgotten,” she says.

Another woman asks why Paris chose to honor Tel Aviv, part of a country that “screws around” with the Palestinians. “Did they have ‘Berlin Beach’ in 1944?” she asks, making a reference to Nazi Germany.

That Berlin is hundreds of miles away from the nearest beach seemed lost on the activist, as well as the fact that for most of 1944 the Germans were actually already in Paris, as occupiers.