The support rally, near the Paris court and the premises of the judicial police, is scheduled for 8:30 a.m., just before the hearing of rebels Mathilde Panot and Rima Hassan, both summoned this Tuesday by the police as part of investigations for “apology of terrorism” after comments related to the war between Israel and Hamas.
The head of LFI deputies Mathilde Panot is summoned to explain a press release published by her parliamentary group on October 7, the day Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack against Israel. This text sparked controversy because it notably drew a parallel between the attack by the Islamist movement, described as “an armed offensive by Palestinian forces”, and “the intensification of the Israeli occupation policy” in the Palestinian Territories. The member for Val-de-Marne is due to speak Tuesday morning at the rally.
The Franco-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan, seventh on Manon Aubry’s LFI list in the European elections of June 9, is summoned for comments made between November 5 and December 1. The 32-year-old lawyer was particularly criticized for having said, in an interview given at the end of November to the media Le Crayon, that it was “true” that Hamas was taking legitimate action. The person concerned denounces a misleading editing of her response.
In a joint press release published with her Monday evening, Le Crayon indicates that it has given “this entire interview” to the candidate “so that she can rely on it in the exclusive context of the legal actions she will have to take” .
Rima Hassan denounces “abusive recourses”
Rima Hassan deplored on Monday “a criminalization of the voices which express themselves on the Palestinian question”, while recognizing that “the investigators are simply doing their job” after the “abusive appeals” of pro-Israeli organizations.
“The judicial summons are at the initiative of the European Jewish Organization” (EJO), LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard assured last week. Like several representatives of the movement, Mathilde Panot was the subject of a complaint from the OJE concerning comments made after the attack of October 7.
Support from Médine and Sandrine Rousseau
In a forum, several left-wing personalities, such as the rapper Médine, called for Tuesday’s rally. Among them, deputies like Philippe Brun (PS) or the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau.
Since October 7, the number of reports and complaints for “apology of terrorism” has exploded: to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which handles the majority of these cases, there have been 386 referrals to date in connection with this conflict. For comparison, for the year 2022, the online hate center had been seized 500 times, all cases combined.