Middle East spoils Paris fun

What should have been an ordinary day of sun and fun turned into a political jousting match on Thursday, as activists set up a rival Gaza event nearby. While the day was calm and the turnout modest, the move reflects just how intensely the Middle East conflict resonates in France, home to Europe's largest communities of Jews and Muslims.

It wasn't supposed to be that way. Paris Plages - the city's annual makeshift beach by the Seine River - included laidback Tel Aviv among dozens of beachside cities being showcased this year.

'This shouldn't be about politics'

At stake are people, not politics, argues Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. More broadly, the city's policy "aims to encourage rather than reprimand, to exchange rather than to boycott, to dialogue more than to excommunicate," Hidalgo wrote this week in France's Le Monde newspaper, as outcry broadened over choosing Tel Aviv.

Those sentiments were echoed by math teacher Rolande Rimokh, as she paid a visit to "Tel-Aviv sur Seine," where Israeli music pumped out along a stretch of sand and parasols. "I'm Jewish and I just wanted to have some joy," she said. "This shouldn't be about politics. It should just be about making people smile."

Islamist attacks in Paris changed it all

Nearby, a group of women danced around an Israeli flag. A man in a wheelchair coasted by with the same motif imprinted on his sunglasses. Tourists and Parisians lined up in front of a truck advertising "peace food."

But Rimokh admitted it was hard to set aside long-simmering tensions. Muslim colleagues at the school where she teaches refuse to speak to her. Relations have grown more strained, she said, after January's Islamist attacks that killed 17 people in the French capital, including four Jews.

Jewish groups have also raised alarm over hundreds of anti-Semitic acts in recent years and - partly as a result - the growing number of Jews leaving France.

"We are French before we are Jewish," Rimokh said. "But people don't believe this. They think we are Jewish before we are French."

PR for Israeli government Paris 'served on a plate'

The city's choice of honoring Tel Aviv has drawn criticism mostly from leftist politicians and pro-Palestinian groups. "For the Israeli government, this is a nice bit of PR that Paris is serving up on a plate," left-wing city councilor Danielle Simonnet told French radio.

A few yards from "Tel Aviv sur Seine" - and separated by a cordon of police - activists sporting green "Boycott Israel" T-shirts set up a rival "Gaza sur Seine," featuring Arab rap music and photos of casualties from last year's Israeli strikes. The event was organized by pro-Palestinian group CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, whose founder, Olivia Zemor, happens to be Jewish.

"We're here to show people the Palestinian side and to let them know about their situation," said 24-year-old activist Fadoua El Amri, as a woman nearby passed out falafels. "Nothing has been done for the reconstruction of Gaza or to help people there live normally."

Political differences shouldn't affect relations between Jews and Muslims

Down the beach, French retiree Josiane Voyant sat on the sand with a friend. "I'm revolted by Hidalgo's decision," she said of the Paris mayor. "This is certainly not the time to endorse the policies of the Israeli government and of [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu - to the contrary."

Similar arguments were aired in Paris a year ago, as protesters marched against the Israeli strikes on Gaza in demonstrations that sometimes turned violent. French Jews staged a counter-protest in front of the Israeli embassy, waiving Israeli flags and singing the country's national anthem.

But El Amri, for one, does not believe political differences should affect relations between Jews and Muslims here, or anywhere else. "It's not a religious conflict," she says. "It's something the media wants us to think, but it's not."