For several months, Act Up-Paris has been torn apart over the conflict in the Middle East: activists want to publicly support the Palestinians, while other members, Jews, no longer feel welcome and denounce “anti-Semitic comments”. If this crisis is far from being the first in the historic organization fighting AIDS, certain members or supporters of Act Up-Paris interviewed by AFP (ten in total) describe a situation “testing” and a collective that “not doing well at all”.
On March 16, the board of directors, made up of four volunteers, even published a press release to denounce “manifestations of anti-Semitism” at Act Up-Paris. “Even in the associations of “gauchos” in quotation marks, there is still an underlying element of anti-Semitism that must be denounced,” a member of the board assured AFP on condition of anonymity.
One of the episodes took place on November 6 when an activist proposed a draft text of support for the Palestinians, caught under fire from Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip, a month after the October 7 massacres in Israel perpetrated by Hamas . “We are not rid of the useless guilt in the face of the Vichy regime,” we read in particular in this document, consulted by AFP.
“Deeply shocked”
When Eva Vocz, a 31-year-old Jewish woman and one of the association’s four employees, opens this email, “I cried”, she testifies. She said to herself “deeply shocked” to read “anti-Semitic comments” in an association of “fight against discrimination”. This draft will not be discussed or published. She then collects the testimony of an Act Up-Paris activist, the target of death threats accompanied by swastikas at the door of his apartment.
“Anti-Semitism affects everyone. We will not let this happen,” she denounces on social networks, on the Act Up-Paris account, in a context of a sharp increase in the number of anti-Semitic acts in France. But some activists, including Françoise Gil, denounce “instrumentalization”. “He is not Jewish, it was not at all an anti-Semitic act,” this socioanthropologist told AFP.
During a meeting on February 5 to which Eva Vocz attended by video, several activists attacked her and her publication. “The first thing you should think of when you see a swastika at Act Up is gay deportees,” says an activist, according to the report read by AFP. Another assures that Hamas is a “liberation movement”. Eva Vocz’s activism within the left-wing Jewish collective Golem is also mentioned. Two members of the board defend the employee.
A general assembly under tension
“I still found myself facing a pack that had organized itself to make a meeting my trial of dual allegiance. Because that’s the point, it’s that I no longer serve the interests of Act Up but those of the State of Israel.” wonders Eva Vocz, who has been off work since mid-February. “I said to myself: but in fact, as a Jew, we are not welcome,” as “in many struggles on the left at the moment”, said an Act Up supporter, of Jewish faith, who wished to remain anonymous.
In February, Françoise Gil was removed from Act Up-Paris. He is notably accused of having treated Eva Vocz, behind his back, of “Zionist”. “Anti-Zionist” claimed, Françoise Gil refutes any anti-Semitism. “In this case, it was “Zionist” not to say “Jewish”,” says Eva Vocz. “As soon as we have a sensitivity to the “genocide” clearly taking place in Gaza, we are accused of anti-Semitism,” deplores Françoise Gil as more than 32,900 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to Hamas.
Within Act Up-Paris, renowned for its punchy actions, we are worried about the future of an association which has difficulty recruiting and has around forty activists including around ten active ones. Its general meeting is scheduled for this Saturday. In this context of tensions, weekly public meetings have been suspended “to avoid verbal or even physical excesses”, recognizes Cecil Lhuiller, from the CA, and some memberships are pending. Comments on social networks are multiplying and two publications from a sympathizer specifically target Eva Vocz. “I will no longer leave room for harassment,” warns the thirty-year-old.