WORLD WORLDWIDE UK FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) UK, France, OCL CA #334 - Anti-racism, Palestine, a magnifying mirror of French colonialism (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

The political climate in France is explosive, between state repression
of mobilizations for Gaza, unleashing of the extreme right, comments and
actions of Islamophobes and anti-Semitism to which was added the Arras
attack. In this context, colonialism in Palestine resonates with the
French colonialism of yesterday... and its repercussions today. ----
Since the start of the events in Gaza, solidarity has been expressed
everywhere in the world, except... in France[1]where the conflagration
of the debate has taken on unprecedented proportions: ban on
demonstrations, threats dissolution of the NPA, political banning of LFI
designated, including by the RN, as anti-republican and pro-Hamas...
Until now in France, two approaches to the Palestinian question crossed
the political parties and civil society: Gaulo- Mitterandians vs
Atlanticists (i.e. critical or aligned with US positions). Without ever
having broken with Israel, France, since De Gaulle, has had a more
nuanced foreign policy than many other Western states, with Mitterrand
even going so far as to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO). Zionist activists fought for years to shift France into
unconditional support for Israel, why and how were they able to win?

Israel-Palestine, Franco-French question?
To understand the current situation, a quick look back is necessary.
France has always eyed the Middle East, since the 19th century until its
partition during the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916, ratified by the
Balfour Declaration in 1917, in which the French and British betrayed
the promises of independence granted to the Arabs[2]. Then, at the
Liberation of 1945, France bore historic responsibility for the theft of
land from the Palestinians for the benefit of the future State of
Israel, first through support for the Irgun (extreme right Zionist
ancestor of the Likud ) in 1946-47 to remove Jews from the Polish camps
in Palestine[3], then by the diplomatic weight that it engaged in the
vote on the partition plan in 1947. Finally, in 1956, France entered at
war against Nasser's Egypt, in the context of the fight against the
Algerian FLN. Israel's support for France is then obtained in exchange
for the acquisition of nuclear technologies. This support nevertheless
ceased after the Six-Day War in 1967 with the arms embargo that France
supplied to Israel.

Two police officers block the way of young people leaving the metro.
Rally in support of Palestine on October 12, 2023, Paris.

MARTIN NODA / HANS LUCAS
If until then the support of Jews in France for Israel remained weak, a
turning point took place during the 1960s. It was first the arrival in
1962 of repatriates, traumatized at having had to leave Algeria: the
Blackfoot associations in general will be distinguished by a
pro-Israelism revenge for the loss of Algeria[4]. The Khartoum
Resolution taken by Arab countries in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in
1973 completed the shift from almost unanimous and uncritical support to
Israel and its policies. At the same time, the question of support for
Palestine in post-colonial immigration circles emerged in the 1970s
around the MTA[5].

 From colonialism to the "war on terrorism"
The pro-Israeli refocusing of France will take place in the context of
the "war on terrorism" from the Sarkozy years and the demonization of
Muslim people (or assigned as such) and immigrants. An opportunistic
interest then develops for pro-Zionists to build an "Islamist/Muslim"
enemy common to France and, by amalgam, to Israel (schemes that we have
seen in full play since October 7).

It should be noted that through the Israeli-Palestinian question, the
affects of the colonial histories of the children and grandchildren of
North African Jews and Muslims have crystallized. The violence of the
debates that we experience today are heirs to this colonial history...
In the colonial gaze, the Arab-Muslim of Palestine and the French
working-class neighborhoods is the same: the same words for the
stigmatize, the same brutal repressive practices in response - this is
what Zemmour and his activists continue to hammer home in the media and
on social networks. The bans on demonstrations for Gaza are matched only
by the bans on demonstrations last July against police violence: we want
to silence the mobilizations of French people from colonization, their
insolence in wanting to influence politics French foreigner like to
demand justice.

Racist and reactionary outbursts

Today we are witnessing a frightening pro-Israeli consensus ranging from
the soft left to the far right. Meyer Habib can thus declare that
"Marine Le Pen is now part of the Republican arc". The far right
supports Netanyahu's hardline methods, which it has long called for in
the neighborhoods.

At the same time, conspiracists and anti-Semites do not waste a minute:
327 anti-Semitic acts recorded in the ten days following October 7, the
Hamas attack presented as a set-up... The far-right group "Lyon
populaire" even draws an ignoble parallel between Palestinian liberation
nationalism and French nationalism[6]. Making the Israeli response
acceptable will also make future French wars and repressions acceptable.

But the fact that persistent anti-Semitism on the left is also expressed
causes various contradictions and confusions. It is about keeping our
compasses clear: refusing the essentialization of populations making
every Jew a supporter of the colonial and racist policy of the State of
Israel and every Muslim a ·e potential Islamist. We must reaffirm the
right to resistance against colonialism despite all the intimidation and
accusations of anti-Semitism - without suggesting that Hamas, a
fundamentalist religious movement, will liberate the Palestinians, nor
that, while recognizing the right to resistance , its attacks targeting
mainly civilians are legitimate - while combating racist, anti-Semitic
and fascistic exploitation with serious consequences. Finally, we must
deconstruct the essentializing arguments of "religious war" and
"importation of conflict", recalling that it was Europe which imported
its nationalist and colonialist contradictions into Palestine. If
something is imported from there, it is techniques of repression and
products from the colonies... and therefore let us support the BDS
campaign, like all the initiatives coming from what remains of
progressive civil society and organized social forces. in occupied
Palestine, as active internationalism.

Nicolas Pasadena (UCL anti-racist commission)

To validate

[1]And in Germany with police repression of demonstrations and
dissolution procedures.

[2]Proclamation of the "Jewish national home", which systematizes
Zionist colonialism.

[3]Charles Enderlin, The Jews of France, between republic and Zionism,
Éditions du Seuil, 2020.

[4]Idem

[5]Arab Workers Movement, see "1970, birth of the first Palestine
committees", Libertarian Alternative, n°303, March 2020.

[6]On their Instagram account, October 7, 2023, "neither Islamism nor
Zionism, nationalism".

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?La-Palestine-miroir-grossissant-du-colonialisme-francais
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