Gaza Strip Conflict: France Steps Up Security for Paris Pro-Israel Protest amid Communal Tensions

Hundreds of police officers are to be deployed to ensure security at a pro-Israel demonstration in Paris, as the French capital readies for another tense weekend against the backdrop of the conflict in Gaza.

Jewish groups have called for a large rally in front of the Israeli embassy to show support to Israel's military operation against Hamas in Gaza.

It will be the first pro-Israel demonstration held in the French capital since Operation Protective Edge started.

BFMTV reported that some 400 security officers, including anti-riot police, will be at the site in the central 8th arrondissement, near the Avenue des Champs-Elysees.

Up to 6,000 Israeli supporters and a few dozens of rival pro-Gaza protesters showed up at a similar demonstration in Marseille last week. The two groups were kept separated by police.

The bloodshed in Gaza has fuelled a rise in communal tensions and anti-Semitic incidents in France, which is home to Europe's largest Jewish community and Muslim population.

The government has banned several pro-Palestinian protests in the capital, after large peaceful rallies were hijacked by troublemakers who tried to attack synagogues.

Critics say the decision has eventually worsened the situation, provoking extremists to defy authorities, while preventing moderates from expressing their opinions.

The worst violence was in fact witnessed earlier this month in Sarcelles, a Paris suburb known as "little Jerusalem" for its mixed Jewish and Arab composition, where hundreds protesters defied the ban and clashed with police near a synagogue.

In other parts of the country, where demonstrations were allowed, they went on peacefully and without incidents.

Paris authorities are vetting a request filed by a pro-Palestinian group to stage a rally against "the Israeli aggression" at the weekend.

A negative response might further inflame spirits, particularly when considering that the pro-Israel protest has been allowed.

Muslim associations have lamented that authorities have been using "two weights, two measures" in their response to radicals in the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli fields.

The recent violence has put a spotlight on a Jewish self-defence group that has been accused in some instances of provoking pro-Palestinians into street confrontations.

The reports have prompted calls for the Jewish Defence League (LDJ), a far-right movement deemed as terrorist in the US and Israel, to be also banned in France.

"All organisations that use violence have to be dissolved," said Abdallah Zekri, the chairman of France's Observatory against Islamophobia, who described the LDJ as an "extremist, racist group".

Such a possibility was being studied by the interior ministry, police sources told La Liberation newspaper.

LDJ is among the Jewish groups that have urged their members to take part in the demonstration at the Israeli Embassy.