WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #342 - Politics, Bans on demonstrations: solidarity for Palestine in the sights of the State (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The political and military reaction of the Israeli state following the

appalling attack of October 7 perpetrated by Hamas also sparked a wave
of mobilization in favor of the Palestinian people, deprived of the
right to live on Palestinian territory since over 70 years old. In
France, according to "jurisprudence" established under Hollande, the
expression of support for the Palestinian cause is criminalized and
demonstrations quite simply prohibited. ---- The attack of October 7
coordinated by Hamas caused fear, the massacre of more than a thousand
civilians revolts us and we deplore them. Let us say it very clearly,
Hamas is a nationalist and religious movement about which we have no
illusions as to its lack of desire to liberate and emancipate the
working classes and even more so Palestinian women and gender
minorities. But the Hamas attack, as well as the support or support it
arouses among Palestinians, cannot be explained without the colonial and
separatist nature of the State of Israel since its origin, and the
catastrophic results of the policies pursued by Netanyahu since his
accession to the post of Prime Minister in 2009.

The reaction of the State of Israel, in the hands of a far-right
coalition composed of ultra-Orthodox clerics and Jewish supremacists,
Operation "Iron Swords", has striven to overcome in horror attacks by
Palestinian armed groups. At the time of writing, more than 9,500
civilian deaths have been reported in the Gaza Strip alone. The enclave
is completely cut off from the World, no external aid was provided for
several days and it now only arrives in dribs and drabs after the
consent of the oppressor. Access to electricity, gas and water is cut.
Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Minister of Defense, justifies and accepts
this inhuman blockage: "We are fighting animals and we act accordingly".
The United Nations, as well as the European Union, consider that the
"complete siege" of the Gaza Strip is prohibited by international
humanitarian law and oppose it... in vain. On October 13, the Israeli
government even ordered more than a million Palestinians to move from
the north to the south of Gaza in 24 hours.

The repressive relentlessness of the French state.
MARTIN NODA / HANS LUCAS
Demonstrations prohibited, demonstrators arrested
As public opinion is often not in tune with leaders quick to display
unfailing support for Israel, like Biden or Macron, all over the world,
rallies and demonstrations in support of the Palestinians have taken
place. organized. But in France these are immediately banned. Darmanin,
in a telegram addressed to all prefects on October 12, called for a
systematic ban on all "pro-Palestinian demonstrations, because they are
likely to generate disturbances to public order." The penalization of
participants in these demonstrations was also required since the note
specified "the organization of these prohibited demonstrations must give
rise to arrests".

The Minister of the Interior, formerly close to the anti-Semitic Action
Française, the oldest far-right organization in France, the same one who
finds Marine Le Pen - whose party was founded by former SS and
militiamen -, too soft on the migration issue, dares to defend "French
people of Jewish faith". In a crass mix-up, he even orders the prefects
that: "Foreign perpetrators[of possible offenses]must systematically
have their residence permits withdrawn and their expulsion implemented
without delay." His services recognized on the same day that if an
increase in anti-Semitic acts had indeed existed since October 7, "no
serious incident" was then to be deplored. Darmanin not hesitating here
to play the arsonist firefighter, reactivating the migrant association
and by implication being of Muslim faith = anti-Semitic. In a
hallucinatory delirium, Darmanin makes Total Recall no longer a fiction
but a political program and anticipates possible anti-Semitic acts
committed by probably foreign people (necessarily foreigners) even
before they have been committed... the problem being that these racist
delusions have the force of law.

The criminalization of support for the Palestinian cause is something of
a tradition here. Already under Hollande, the Valls government banned in
July 2014 a demonstration in support of the Palestinians in Gaza bombed
by the Israeli army. The cause, clashes which took place the previous
week between supporters of the Palestinian cause and the LDJ (Jewish
Defense League), a far-right neo-Zionist organization, French branch of
the Jewish Defense League involved in numerous acts of violence, even
going as far as murders and attacks. Again in 2021, a pro-Palestinian
demonstration was banned in Paris. Clashes with the police and numerous
arrests followed again.

If it is true that some, a minority, seize the just Palestinian cause to
pour out their anti-Semitic hatred, that others, through an
essentializing amalgam, confuse the Israeli State, Israelis and people
of the Jewish faith, the support to the Palestinian people is a just
cause that we must continue to support unfailingly, without however
refraining from being critical of it if necessary. UCL is part of this
libertarian tradition which does not compromise with anti-Semitism
wherever it comes from. The UCL is similarly part of this libertarian
tradition of absolute support for the Palestinian cause. One is
absolutely not exclusive of the other as some would have us believe.

Attempted rally in support of the Palestinian people on October 14 in Paris.
MARTIN NODA / HANS LUCAS
Today, as in 2014 and 2021, the majority of demonstrators intend to
exercise their legitimate right to express their solidarity in the face
of the fate suffered by the Palestinian people for almost 80 years now.
The right of everyone to live on the land of their ancestors cannot be
denied to anyone. It is this support that we are once again seeking to
silence with the bans on demonstrations. The criminalization of
solidarity is simply abject, it is a further sign of the fascistization
of the state apparatus.

Darmanin: still one step ahead of the far right
One example among many others of this fascistic and racist tendency
which is taking hold slowly, but surely, at all levels of power: the
banning order of the Prefecture of Savoie concerning the "Rally in
support of Palestine and call for peace" submitted by the France
Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) Chambéry association. In addition to the
imperatives linked to the "particularly acute terrorist threat" and
other considerations, each as abusive as the other (including
"anti-Zionist" remarks uttered apparently automatically assimilated to
anti-Semitic remarks), mention is made of an exceptionally serious risk,
the presence during a previous banned demonstration of: "numerous
members from the Muslim community and individuals linked to the extreme
left and ultra-left". Thus the presence of people "from the Muslim
community" at a demonstration or gathering would be a legitimate reason
for a ban!

With a right like that, there is no need for an extreme right.
Faced with the repression of expressions of solidarity, the UCL fully
supports the NPA targeted by an investigation for "apology of terrorism"
for a press release published on October 7. Let us say it clearly,
because the NPA is a partner that we regularly encounter in struggles,
we absolutely do not associate ourselves with what was written in this
press release. However, making the NPA an organization that would need
to be dissolved, for advocating terrorism, is simply absurd. This threat
is part of a political desire to silence movements questioning the
policy pursued by the French state here and internationally. The ban on
the expression of dissent also extended to Mariam Abou Daqqa, activist
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), currently
in France for several conferences, placed under house arrest on October
16 while awaiting release. possible expulsion.

Libertarian communist activists and beyond must mobilize today to put an
end to this state of exception which does not speak its name and demand
an end to the prosecution of the NPA for "apology of terrorism", free
movement of Palestinian activist Mariam Abou Daqqa, the cessation of
prosecutions, as well as the cancellation of sentences and fines already
imposed, for people who have demonstrated their support for the
Palestinian cause. Libertarian communist activists must also raise their
voice during these demonstrations and rallies for an end to the
bombings, the end of apartheid, colonialism, and respect for the rights
of the Palestinian people.

David (UCL Savoies)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Interdictions-de-manifester-la-solidarite-pour-la-Palestine-dans-le-viseur-de-l
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