Mob Attacks French Foreign Minister in Gaza
- Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:16am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip (AP) — Dozens of furious Palestinians protested against the French foreign minister on a visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday, pelting her motorcade with eggs and narrowly missing her with a lobbed shoe.
The protesters, relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, were angry about comments Michele Alliot-Marie reportedly made the day before in support of Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier captured in a cross-border raid by the Islamic militant group Hamas and held in Gaza since 2006.
Protesters were waiting for Alliot-Marie as she crossed from Israel into Gaza through the Erez Crossing, lying on the road and jumping on her vehicle. Hamas police eventually dispersed those protesters, but more gathered outside a United Nations office in Gaza City that was her first stop in the Palestinian territory, and later followed her to a nearby hospital, pelting her motorcade with eggs. AP Television footage showed Alliot-Marie narrowly dodging a shoe thrown by a protester as she climbed into a jeep under heavy guard.
Schalit, the captive soldier, is an Israeli-French dual national and France has repeatedly called for his release.
Alliot-Marie made no public statement Thursday after meeting with Schalit’s parents in Jerusalem, but the soldier’s father, Noam Schalit, said afterward that the minister had called on Hamas to allow the Red Cross to visit his son for the first time. He referred to his son’s capture as a “war crime.”
The Palestinians linked the comments to Alliot-Marie, although she did not say anything publicly before or after the meeting.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the statements reflected a “total bias toward Israel” and ignored the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. “They are the true prisoners of war,” he said.
Hamas is demanding that Israel release hundreds of Hamas prisoners, including militants behind deadly attacks against Israelis, in return for Schalit. Talks facilitated by a German mediator have produced no result. Schalit has been seen by no one but his captors since 2006. A videotape released in 2009 showed him talking and reading a newspaper.
In keeping with the policy of the European Union, which considers Hamas a terror organization, Alliot-Marie did not meet with Hamas officials during her half-day visit.
Speaking at a French cultural center in Gaza, Alliot-Marie called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and security for Israel. She also called on Israel to fully lift all restrictions on goods and people coming and out of Gaza.
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Comments (45)
rappini
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 4:17pmThis is for Gaza, LALALALALA can’t hear you.
Report Post »Nervous Investor
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 3:09pmHas this story lost some of the comments this afternoon – thought that there was a page 2.
Report Post »Lion420
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 2:16pmVIOLENT CHILDREN…the followers of allah…again
Report Post »Boudicca
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 2:00pmIt’s not heartless. You are using common sense. Unfortunately, experience has shown that most politicians and all diplomats are completely lacking in this instinct.
Report Post »H O N D O
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 1:20pmVichy
Report Post »Boudicca
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 12:05pmThey were throwing eggs? I thought the Palestinians in Gaza were starving due to the Israeli blockade!
Report Post »One more thing… I can’t believe Alliot-Marie put her personal safety in the hands of Hamas.
Socco
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 1:27pmThey are nothing but a bunch of cowardly chickens who get their children to do the bloody work, so there are plenty of eggs.
Report Post »stealthyk9
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 11:35amSo, the furious Palestinian protesters, while attacking the French foreign minister, have machine-printed signs in English and Arabic(?) but not French. This protest is completely staged for, and probably aided by, the American and British mainstream media. Wake up, America. We are being played as fools.
Report Post »Lord_Frostwind
Posted on January 22, 2011 at 4:08amWhat? You mean that it isn’t logical for a protest about to a French audience is printed in English?
I always love watching these incompetents hold their signs wrong. If there is one thing I will say Vladamir Lenin was right on, it was the term “Useful Idiots” for people like these protesters. You’re probably right, most of these movements subsist on the bleeding hearts of America and Britain to keep them going. It probably means they know they’ve overplayed their hand and are looking for more donations or blockade running attempts.
Report Post »Neil Mariner
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 10:50amAnd we think we have an unemployment problem. Thats what people do when they have time on there hands and there brains are fried.
Report Post »Lord_Frostwind
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 10:44am…“Life the restrictions on people and goods coming in and out of Gaza” really? That seems like a FANTASTICALLY bad idea to me. The whole reason those blockades were put in place was to prevent the war between the Palestinian‘s and Israeli’s from escalating further.
If you think the fights have been ugly the past few years, just wait to see what happens when the Iranians or someone else ships Hamas something nasty, and the Israeli’s take the gloves off. Of course, I‘m sure when that whatever happens it will still be Israel’s fault.
Report Post »Lord_Frostwind
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 10:44am*Lift*
Report Post »chuck
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 9:46amMore thugs is all. These people will have to figure out a way to get along first, then Israel can assimilate them, and peace be to all….NOT! That will never happen, and as long as Israel exists, there will be wars and conflict with the Muslim community. I support Israel’s right to exist, and the right for a separate Palestinian State as well, but they are mutually exclusive entities. What part of Israel do they give up to hand the Pals a seaport? LOL…never happen, so peace will never come to the Holy Land. Not until the End…
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 8:51amI’m sure the French will go ahead, surrender and get it over with.
Report Post »Docrow
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 8:40amWho printed the nice big signs?
Report Post »JohnBarleycorn
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 9:38amThose signs are well done. Looks like they were made on high quality paper.
Report Post »Also, did you notice how the protesters look?
No headgear, suit jackets and nice haircuts.
Look at the hand of the guy in the lower left corner of the photo holding the sign upside down against the car. What a beautiful manicure!
These guys have my vote for the best dressed protesters of the year.
Helldogger
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 8:32amAhhh!!!! More peaceful behavior from the religion of peace. I am to assume they were out of explosives and/or detinators this week.
Report Post »Thighmaster
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 8:09amThey’re throwing food? No food shortage there..
Report Post »DonaldH
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 8:03amThat wasn’t an angry mob,, those were peace loving Muslims
Report Post »Non-sequitur
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 2:37pmGood thing the protesters weren’t Israelis or the car and all civilians in the area would have been bombed with white phosphorus.
Report Post »Liberty7
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:56amSchalit is living on borrowed time, that is, if he is still alive.
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:46amNo more french fries in Gaza……………
Report Post »Nervous Investor
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:44amAhhhh …………. it showed up ………….
Report Post »lasthouseontheright
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:44amI knew that one day they would run out of rocks and resort to throwing eggs.
Report Post »jctunink
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:44amAhhh but wait there’s more! Sarcoze (sp) is/was a Conservative, and is now embroiled in a sex scandel. If anyone has ever studied the Communist works they know that tsubversives are more than willing to use a mans vanity against him in using the “Honey Trap” to get their policies in place or to “blunt” the sword. Thay compromised him as well as the Italian leader with s e x in order to control the outcome. When they fought back, scandel was the result. Blackmail was the tool.
Report Post »Nervous Investor
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:42amFunny ….. don’t see my last post at all …………
Report Post »Nervous Investor
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:41amJust sayin’ …… but this Minister Alliot-Marie seems to have more balls than the rest of the French combined – maybe ‘cept the Foreign Legion.
Report Post »jctunink
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:38amMust have been organized by SEIU. Seriously, they’re holding the pre-printed sign upside down in 1 picture and handing them out in another. Last time I saw pictures like that was a political rally, dare I say it, on the Mall that was what, “America Coming Together”, sponsered by close to 300 union, Socialist and Comunist organisations.
Report Post »jctunink
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:39amHad about the same turn out too! Dozens showed up!
Report Post »TurnRight
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 9:22amInteresting observation, I think you are right, this was all planned well in advance for these local demonstrators. I smell a union rat.
Report Post »jctunink
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 10:14amActually, not a “Union Rat” but a Progressive one. Like Code Pink, SEIU, International ASNSWER ect….
Report Post »NickDeringer
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:29amNews flash: the Palestinians will now produce text books with maps that show France as part of the Palestinian territory.
Report Post »79USMC83
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:29amLet see they want their OWN state and this is an example of how they will treat Foreign visitors !! Israel has swapped thousands of prisoners in the past for just a few of their own. Has Israel already offered Hamas this? Do they not already have a state called Gaza governed by Hamas?
Report Post »Stuck_in_CA
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:34amWelcome Wagon, ****** style. When will people ever learn?
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 7:58amEggs and shoes? These are only the moderate peace loving Muslims I guess…
Report Post »Rogue
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 10:16amDid I just see Macy Gray in the crowd???
Report Post »chazman
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 10:33amIslam sucks … nuf said.
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 10:45amDoesn’t anyone work for a living there or do they spontaneously just protest all day long?
Report Post »Socco
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 1:25pmSharon and Bush were cockroaches for uprooting the Jews from Gaza. God made Sharon a vegetable, and destroyed New Orleans along with the final-measure of Bush’s reputation. Gaza is the portion that God gave to Judah back in antiquity.
They uprooted Jews from Gaza, and look what that got us. It was at this moment that I turned my back on GWB. May God have mercy upon his soul.
Report Post »avenger
Posted on January 21, 2011 at 4:42pmwhy are you surprised…the french always suck…
Report Post »