By Juliette Jabkhiro

NANTERRE, France (Reuters) -As French President Emmanuel Macron recognised Palestine statehood earlier this week, dozens of town halls across France hoisted the Palestinian flag in celebration – defying instructions by Macron’s interior ministry not to do so.

By Wednesday, some had taken the flag down after regional authorities initiated legal proceedings – an episode which some mayors said undermined the message of solidarity Macron sought to make with his largely symbolic recognition.

“For me it’s a complete misunderstanding,” Raphael Adam, mayor of Nanterre outside Paris, told Reuters. “You can’t have a government asking its representatives to oppose raising a flag at the same time it’s recognising the state.”

The city raised the flag in a ceremony on Monday but

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