A feminist framework engaged in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine was founded in early 2025 in Paris, France, in order to support Palestinian women, too often silenced within traditional feminist circles. Despite attacks by fascists and Zionist groups and attempts to suppress their work by the French state, the mobilizations for 7 and 8 March were two important political moments to highlight the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners and the Resistance, and more generally, the struggle for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.
For five years now, on 7 March a radical feminist night march has been held in Paris, organized by the Feminist Assembly Paris Sublieue. Last year, in 2024, the demonstration included many speeches denouncing the genocide in Gaza, Palestinian flags and signs and banners saluting the Resistance. This year, activists from Urgence Palestine and Samidoun Paris Banlieue decided to organize a march for Palestine and call upon the greatest number of participants to join in.
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Far from the dehumanizing image of passive victims portrayed in imperialist discourse, the call highlighted Palestinian women as “fighters, lawyers, and journalists, and as mothers, sisters, and companions of resistance fighters, playing a central role within the Palestinian resistance by organizing and participating in operations, strikes, demonstrations and battles within the colonial prisons.”
Very quickly, this text sparked a wave of calls by fascist and Zionist forces demanding the dissolution of Urgence Palestine and Samidoun Paris Banlieue, particularly on social networks. Very sensitive to these Zionist influencers’ remarks, Laurent Nunez, the prefect of Paris, then ordered the entire feminist march banned under the pretext of “potential security trouble,” because of the presence of two Palestine solidarity groups using the slogan, “From the river to the sea,” and making references to Leila Khaled. This was an unprecedented attack in the recent history of feminist marches in France, reflecting the current degree of fascization and the constant attempts of the government to silence anti-colonial voices, particularly activists for Palestine, in order to defend its strategic alliance with the Zionist entity.
In response, anti-Zionist feminist activists issued a press release in one day signed by over 100 personalities and political organizations, denouncing the repression.
Meanwhile, the Feminist Assembly Paris Banlieue filed a legal challenge against the ban, and thanks to the work of the Anti-Racist Legal Team and lawyer Celia Bert Lazli, the administrative court ruled that the demonstration was actually authorized only minutes before the action was to begin, and ordered the government to pay a 1000 EUR fine to the League for Human Rights (LDH).
At approximately 7 pm, participants gathered following this last-minute victory at Gare de l’Est, with the contingent saluting the resistance of Palestinian women at the head of the demonstration, alongside the Feminist Assembly Paris Banlieue, and followed by nearly 8,000 participants, with flares, drums and voices chanting “Right to return for all refugees! Freedom for all prisoners!” The demonstration was led by two massive large banners portraying Palestinian strugglers, the liberated feminist leader and scholar Khalida Jarrar, and the longest-serving imprisoned Palestinian woman, Shatila Abu Ayad.
The march stopped for solidarity rallies outside the Gaîté Lyrique theatre being occupied by a movement of migrant minors calling for rights, equality, housing, school and health for all, as well as outside the LGBTQI+ center, before proceeding to Theodor Herzl place, named after the infamous theorist of the Zionist colonial project. The route of the demonstration highlighted various modes of resistance in struggle by oppressed groups, including the Palestinian resistance and its international supporters, confronting racist, colonial, imperialist and sexist policies carried out by the French state and its imperialist allies. This march and the promise it holds for future political alliances has shaken the government project of feminism emptied of its revolutionary scope at the service of neoliberal policies. This victory is also an important milestone for anti-colonial and pro-Palestinian feminist struggles in the Ile-de-France region.
Following this first demonstration, on 8 March, International Working Women’s Day, the challenge in Paris was twofold: organizing a march and ensuring that fascist and Zionist groups, “Némésis” and “Nous Vivrons” cannot march in the international feminist rally.
These images of the Palestinian women prisoners, mostly held in Damon prison, were carried not only in Paris, but also in Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille and elsewhere. The international campaign had called to center the struggle of Palestinian women prisoners and their recently liberated comrades in International Women’s Day mobilizations, as they stand alongside their brothers, comrades, children and friends as one of the most advanced sectors of the Resistance and the Palestinian people as a whole.
The announced presence of fascist and Zionist groups, “Némésis” and “Nous Vivrons” within the Paris demonstration, also required organizers to use their forces in a defense strategy prepared months in advance. For several years, the white supremacist group “Némésis” and the Zionist group “Nous Vivrons” have been attempting to violently infiltrate feminist demonstrations. The former has received support from the highest levels of the French state, such as interior minister Bruno Retailleau, as it seeks to normalize and spread racist and fascist ideas, while the latter is an openly Zionist formation defending the colonial project of ethnic cleansing.
Whenever they are present, they meet a strong spontaneous response, with activists and protesters confronting these fascists to exclude them from the demonstrations. This was successful in March 2023, despite the brutal attack by “security” for the Zionist collective, mainly composed of men with tear gas canisters and padded gloves. On 23 November 2024, these groups were surrounded by a massive police presence so large that it was impossible to prevent them from marching.
In anticipation of 8 March 2025 and in the face of the incapacity or unwillingness of the major white feminist organizations and trade unions, which, to some extent, still tolerate the presence at least of the Zionist contingent, women comrades of Samidoun Paris Banlieue and Urgence Palestine put a call out: on 8 March we will stop everything, especially fascists and Zionists.
Signed by nearly 30 organizations, this call for anti-Zionist and anti-fascist action launched discussions with many feminist organizations to develop a collective strategy for the day.
Several contingents stopped in several areas, while others gathered a cord around themselves, and other demonstrators erected a barricade. Therefore, despite violent attacks against the feminist march, including beatings, punches in the face, tossing of tear gas canisters and violent attempts to infiltrate the march, the two fascist and Zionist groups were forced to wait for hours to the side of the demonstration to finally parade quickly, surrounded by police, on a deserted street at night.
Free all Palestinian prisoners!
Palestine will live, Palestine will win!
Discover more from Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
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