Despite the prefect's request, Christian Estrosi refuses to remove the Israeli flag from the pediment of his town hall

Foreign flags unwelcome. The prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, Laurent Hottiaux, who replaced Hugues Moutouh a month ago, has just called the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, to order. In a letter, the state representative reiterates the ban on all foreign flags in town halls , regardless of the country. This is an attack "on the principle of public service neutrality," Laurent Hottiaux reminded the Nice chief magistrate.

Between the lines, it's obviously the Israeli flag flying on the pediment of Nice City Hall that's being targeted. And it must be removed. "We are preparing a circular to remind all mayors of the Alpes-Maritimes region of the ban on the presence of foreign flags on public buildings," reveals a source at the prefecture.

The day after October 7, 2023, Christian Estrosi pledged to drape the Israeli flag over the city hall and keep it flying as long as a single Hamas hostage remained in Gaza. The white banner with the blue Star of David was first installed on the public entrance side. Upon the death of Pope Francis on April 21, the flag of the Jewish state was replaced by that of the Vatican, and then during the Ocean Summit by that of the United Nations. The Israeli flag, or rather the Israeli flags, have not moved from the facade on the wedding hall side since the attack 19 months ago.

On that day, members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, in several coordinated attacks inside Israel, massacred more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. This was the worst attack on Israeli soil in history. Fifty-two hostages remain in Gaza, but only about twenty are alive, according to official sources. Since then, the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—which has claimed more than 50,000 lives in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to UNICEF—has destroyed thousands of lives on both sides and destabilized the entire region.

"Christian Estrosi is placing the City of Nice at odds with French foreign policy. He is making the City of Nice an unconditional supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu's policies and is making our City symbolically complicit in the atrocities suffered by the civilian population of Gaza," reacted David Nakache, president of Tous Citoyens!, a member of the Viva! collective, after the prefect's call to order.

"This is an unacceptable position," the activist fumes. "If Christian Estrosi maintains his position, without taking into account constant citizen mobilization and the call to order by the State, it is because he is determined to apologize for war crimes, crimes against humanity and the genocide underway in Gaza," David Nakache continues. Since the beginning of the Israeli response to Gaza, pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been organized in Nice almost every week. Parades that tirelessly make a detour by the town hall and stop under the Israeli flag, the heart of the tensions, to demand that it be removed or that the Palestinian flag be raised alongside it.

"We demand that the mayor of Nice comply with this order from the prefect and carry it out without delay in the interest of all the people of Nice," said Julien Picot, head of the communists of the Alpes-Maritimes.

The mayor of Nice has no intention of giving in... "I did receive a letter from the prefect, but he was also kind enough to call me yesterday [Monday]. These are not his instructions but the government's instructions. And I told him I was sorry to say no," begins Christian Estrosi. He insists: "I have excellent relations with this prefect. He is in this role and I understand it and I am in mine . " "It is a refusal to the government, not to the prefect," insists the mayor of Nice (Horizons). "Since the pogrom triggered by Hamas, I said that I would put the Israeli flag at the town hall and that I would not take it down until the day the last hostage is returned to his family," explains the mayor. "Moreover, that day it was in the presence of the former prefect Moutouh, who never said anything to me about the flag," he specifies.

"All my compassion to the civilian victims"

For Christian Estrosi, it is a "moral and conviction-based" commitment, he who, he adds, "had to deal with two attacks in Nice." He is convinced that "the fight Israel is waging is a fight against Hamas, Daesh, the Islamic State, all of these are the same organization. It is a fight to protect us." He does not understand the argument of neutrality put forward by the State. "I have Palestinian friends who tell me: free us from Hamas. It is the fight for freedom against obscurantism, against terrorism, against the Ayatollahs," Estrosi swears. He gets angry: "Who uses the Palestinian flag? It is not the Socialist Party, not the Greens, not the center-left, not the center-right, nor even the extreme right! It is Mélenchon and the Insoumis! It is Rima Hassan [LFI deputy of Palestinian origin] . The mayor of Nice concludes: "All my compassion goes to the civilian victims in Lebanon, Iran and Gaza."