Visa pour l’image: Perpignan Mayor Louis Aliot Refuses to Award Palestinian Photographer

Tensions from the first day of the Visa pour l'image photography festival in Perpignan. The city's Rassemblement National mayor, Louis Aliot, has declared that he will not award a prize to Loay Ayyoub, a Gazan photographer, because of his positions on Hamas.

Tense atmosphere at Visa pour l'image. As the photojournalism festival opens this Saturday, August 31 in Perpignan, the city's mayor announced that he was refusing to award the Rémi Ochlik City Prize to Gazan photographer Loay Ayyoub, report our colleagues at l’Indépendant.

" I refuse to award a prize to a photographer who describes Hamas on his social networks as the 'Palestinian Resistance'", declared Louis Aliot.

“Terrorist organization”

In a video posted online by the Visa pour l’image Instagram account, Louis Aliot can be heard speaking on this subject.

“That people talk about Gaza doesn't bother me. It seems to me that it is healthy to talk about the victims of this major conflict. It is still necessary for all parties to be respected, but they are not. “We cannot put Hamas, a terrorist and totalitarian organization, on the same footing as a democracy like the Israeli democracy,” he said.

The prize, awarded by a jury, rewards a series of photos showing the war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip for several months, in response to the attacks of October 7. Festival director Jean-François Leroya responded to Louis Aliot that other conflicts were well addressed during the festival and thanked the mayor for the editorial freedom he has in organizing Visa pour l'image.