France warns mayors against flying Palestinian flag next week

  France's interior ministry has ordered prefects to oppose the display of Palestinian flags on town halls and other public buildings next week when Paris is set to formally recognise the Palestinian state. 

"The principle of neutrality in public service prohibits such displays," the interior ministry said in a telegram, a copy of which was seen by AFP on Friday. 

Any decisions by mayors to fly the Palestinian flag should be referred to courts, the interior ministry said. 

Israel's war on Gaza is a hot-button issue in France, and it is not uncommon to see flags hanging out of windows in Paris and elsewhere. 

Several French mayors have already announced their intention to display the Palestinian flag on their town halls next week. 

On Monday, France is set to formally recognise Palestine's statehood at the United Nations General Assembly. 

The warning from the interior ministry came after Socialist leader Olivier Faure called for the Palestinian flag to be flown on town halls on Monday, when Jewish worshippers also celebrate the Rosh Hashanah holiday, the Jewish New Year. 

However, the interior ministry said any such display would amount to "taking sides in an international conflict."

"It is therefore appropriate," the telegram said, "to ask mayors who display such flags on their public buildings to cease doing so and, in the event of refusal or non-compliance" to refer those mayors' decisions to administrative courts. 

'Courts will decide' 

Faure, the Socialist leader, said on Friday that prefects did not have the power to ban such displays. 

"The courts will decide if necessary," he said on X.

"An outgoing minister should manage day-to-day affairs, not seek to symbolically oppose the decision taken by the president to recognise a Palestinian state," Faure added, referring to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. 

France is awaiting the announcement of the new cabinet lineup after Macron last week named his close ally Sebastien Lecornu as the new prime minister to resolve a deepening political crisis.

Several French town halls have had to remove Palestinian flags following court decisions.

'Shocked' 

In June, a court ordered the mayor of the eastern city of Besancon to remove the Palestinian flag, saying she had "violated the principle of neutrality of public services" by displaying the flag. 

Vignot said at the time she was "shocked" by the ruling. 

"Is denouncing a massacre and supporting a starving people under bombardment no longer a cause that unites us under the banner of the Republic?" she said in a statement. 

The same month the mayor of the southern city of Nice had to remove Israeli flags from the front of the town hall following a court order. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Macron of pursuing a policy of "appeasement" of the Hamas militants. Macron said on Thursday that recognising the Palestinian state would isolate Hamas. 

Several other leaders have announced their intent to formally recognise the Palestinian state during the UN summit. 

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many French city halls have displayed the Ukrainian flags in a gesture of solidarity.

Agence France-Presse