He also told reporters that he would be dedicating a square in Paris for first prime minister David Ben Gurion and naming a street in the French capital after Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who died recently.Delanoé told the press, “I will be criticized and take a lot of heat for both dedications in Paris, but I don’t care. I am a friend of both the Jewish and Palestinian peoples,” he said.Afterwards, there was a screening of the film The Concert, directed by Romanian-Israeli-French director Radu Milhaneau, was attended by hundreds of local French people and Francophile Israelis, including stars Ronit Elkabetz and Hanna Laszlo.Delanoé told the crowd that the film, the story of the comic mishaps of a bohemian-style orchestra from Moscow that comes to Paris, set against a tragic Jewish family history, has been a big hit in Paris and is “filled with humanity.” Delanoé explained that the cooperation accord was the formalizing of an ongoing process. “Paris and Tel Aviv have been working together for years in a number of areas, including urban planning and the arts,” he said. “The accord will encourage the work of creators in both cities. Paris and Tel Aviv are both dynamic centers of artistic creation and beauty. This must be encouraged.” • Brett Kline
