France has been slipping into the turmoil it dreaded. Convictions and summonses of political and trade union activists for "glorification of terrorism," in the midst of the European election campaign; bans on university lectures and even political meetings; occupation of the prestigious Sciences Po University campus in Paris; media and social media in meltdown: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has invaded the entire political, social and media sphere in France.
The announcement on Tuesday, April 23, that Mathilde Panot, leader of the radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) group in the Assemblée Nationale, had been summoned by the police in connection with proceedings for "glorification of terrorism," was the culmination of two weeks during which the conflict in the Middle East imposed itself on French society, stirring up latent but already deep-rooted divisions. The importation of tensions linked to the conflict, widely feared and condemned in advance by public authorities in the aftermath of the October 7 massacres, seems well and truly a reality. Le Monde takes a look back at two decisive weeks.
On April 13, three organizations – including the French Palestinian Association – represented by six lawyers, filed a complaint against a French-Israeli soldier for "torture, complicity in torture and war crimes" in Gaza. The action was based on a video posted on Telegram of a Palestinian prisoner, blindfolded, bare-chested and with his back clearly lacerated. The soldier made an ironic commentary of the scene and praised – in French – the torture inflicted. According to information obtained by Le Monde, around 50 complaints could be brought against dual nationals serving in the Israeli army.
Mélenchon's 'excessive language'
The following week, echoes of the conflict resounded at Lille University. LFI's leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon planned to hold a meeting on "current events in Palestine" on April 18, alongside French-Palestinian legal expert Rima Hassan, seventh on the LFI list for the European elections. But the Socialist MP, Jérôme Guedj, condemned the conference poster on social media. It featured a single country and, in his view, made Israel disappear.
Faced with the controversy, the university's directors decided that conditions to "guarantee the serenity of the debates" no longer existed and canceled the conference. Furious, Mélenchon compared the president of the University of Lille to former Nazi Adolf Eichmann, sparking widespread disapproval, including among his partners in the left-wing alliance of parties Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale (NUPES). Communist leader Fabien Roussel criticized him for "his excessive language," which "discredits all the rest."
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