Trying to embody a pole of “resistance” in the face of “liberticidal attacks from the government”. This was the slogan of the rally organized by France Insoumise with the support of various trade union organizations this Tuesday, April 30, at Porte de Clichy in Paris (17th century), a stone’s throw from the court, to support Rima Hassan And Mathilde Panot.
The candidate for the European elections and the leader of the rebellious deputies spoke in front of nearly 300 elected officials and activists of the movement, before their summons by the police for “apology of terrorism”. In question : a controversial press release of the group of LFI deputies after the October 7 attacks in Israeland an interview with Rima Hassan, given to the media Le Crayon, where she affirms that it is “true” that Hamas is carrying out legitimate action.
The Franco-Palestinian lawyer has since assured that this interview was “truncated” and that she describes Hamas as a “terro group”. 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” .
Protected from the rain under a small shed, Mathilde Panot therefore launched a charge against what she considers to be “abuses of power” a sign of an “authoritarian headlong rush”. “In which democracy are anti-terrorism methods used against political activists, community activists or trade unionists? “, she protested while several activists responded to her cries of “resistance”.
“They want to scare us but they are the ones who are afraid of us! »
“We know what they want to do by accusing us of advocating terrorism. They want to scare us but they are the ones who are afraid of us! We will not be silent! “, she continued, also evoking the conference cancellations by Rima Hassan and Jean-Luc Mélenchon in recent days.
The tribune gave him his support at the end of the morning on his ideas. French democracy is seriously fractured. The world looks at us stunned. »
Mathilde Panot then paid tribute to the students who blocked Sciences-po Paris, to defend Palestine. A movement that the Insoumis hope to see spread in the countrywhen they placed the Palestinian cause at the heart of their electoral campaign.
“Across the world, people are rising up against the ongoing genocide. Of Columbia University (in New York in the United States), from Sciences-po to La Sorbonne (…) Glory to this youth who are more responsible than any of our governments,” praised Mathilde Panot, when activists in the crowd shouted “Israel murderer, Macron accomplice”.
A little later, Rima Hassan read a short text prepared on her phone. “Today, there is a complicit silence in France, a country of human rights, I do not want to remain silent, I do not want to give in,” she declared. Before concluding, quoting the lawyer and feminist activist Gisèle Halimi : “Didn’t the world hope that the Shoah would mark the definitive end of barbarism? »
“The more people attack me, the more support I have”
Facing journalists, a few moments later, she affirmed that she was going to denounce to the police the “lobbyists”, “organizations which appear to be in line with the propaganda of the (Israeli) extreme right (…) which have filed complaints by the dozens.” “The judicial summons are at the initiative of the European Jewish Organization” (EJO), LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard assured last week. “By making me a target, they are making me a figure. The more people attack me, the more support I have,” Rima Hassan boasted.
Faithful to their precept of “standing as a unit” when one of their own is attacked, the LFI deputies and parliamentary collaborators came in numbers to support the two rebels. The general staff was present, like Manuel Bompard and the head of the list in the European elections, Manon Aubry. But also the deputies at odds with the leadership of the movement, Clémentine Autain, François Ruffin and Alexis Corbière. The environmentalist deputy Sandrine Rousseau and the EELV senator Raymonde Poncet Monge also responded, as did Olivier Besancenot (NPA).
