Europe's weekend of protest: German clashes, French unrest, London arrests

Over 770 arrested in France as Molotov cocktails injure police; 139 held in London after Palestine Action protest.

Europe's weekend of protest: German clashes, French unrest, London arrests — A gendarme in Paris suffered second-degree burns Saturday after a Molotov cocktail exploded at his feet, as protests across France led to more than 770 arrests and 159 law enforcement members injured.[^1] The French government has opened an attempted murder investigation into the attacks.[^1] In Germany, about 160,000 people demonstrated in eight cities, including Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg, where protesters threw Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and bottles at police, and in Frankfurt smashed shop windows and looted stores.[^2] In London, the Metropolitan Police arrested 139 people on October 31 during a demonstration outside the US Embassy organized by Defend Our Juries, which campaigns against the government's decision to outlaw the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action.[^3] The UK had designated Palestine Action a terrorist organization.[^3] The weekend's violence underscores a pattern of escalating confrontation across European capitals, with protesters using increasingly aggressive tactics and authorities responding with mass arrests. The French protests, which saw Israeli flags set on fire in Lyon, have drawn particular concern from Israeli observers who see them as a warning sign.[^4] The question now is whether European governments can de-escalate before the unrest spreads further. Arrest of a groom, loneliness of the elderly, and a road toll of 40 children — Yaari Lieberman, a yeshiva student from Modiin defined as a deserter, was arrested today by military police as he stepped off a bus with his bride on their way to a sheva brachot celebration.[^1] MK Meir Porush called the arrest 'criminal conduct' that 'should shock every Jew,' while MK Yitzhak Goldknopf labeled it 'a new low in the witch hunt against Torah scholars' and 'a stain on a Jewish state.'[^1] The incident, which follows a previous attempt to arrest Lieberman that was blocked by hundreds of protesters summoned via the emergency hotline 'Black Color,'[^1] lays bare the unresolved tension between military service obligations and the Haredi exemption system—a fault line that no election result has yet