LFI denounced the Islamist movement and Israeli colonization with one voice, a position out of step with the rest of the political class.
Hamas’ attack on Israel is causing turmoil within the French political class. The positioning of La France insoumise (LFI) on the offensive carried out from the Gaza Strip on Saturday October 7, which left hundreds of civilian deaths on both sides, was strongly criticized. “The armed offensive by Palestinian forces led by Hamas comes in a context of intensification of the Israeli occupation policy in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem”asserted in a press release on the social network X (formerly Twitter) the parliamentary group of the radical left party.
>> Hamas attack on Israel: follow the evolution of the situation live
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part, explained that “All the violence unleashed against Israel and in Gaza does not prove[ait] only one thing: violence only produces and reproduces itself.. “Horrified, our thoughts and our compassion go out to all the distraught populations who are victims of all this. A ceasefire must be imposed”he added on the X platform. A position still strong by LFI deputy Louis Boyard : “For too long has France turned a blind eye to colonization and abuses in Palestine. Too long has France kept the violence of the Israeli state and that of Palestinian armed groups back to back.”
Elisabeth Borne denounces “a form of anti-Semitism”
Enough to make some people jump, including at the head of the executive. Elisabeth Borne thus denounced on Sunday the “revolting ambiguities” from part of the left “faced with the drama of recent hours”. “On the far left, verbal violence is accepted, the search for chaos is claimed”, declared the Prime Minister in front of activists from the French presidential Renaissance party gathered in Bordeaux (Gironde). Questioned subsequently on BFMTV, the head of government denounced a “anti-Zionism” who is “sometimes also a way of masking a form of anti-Semitism”.
The socialists, allies of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party within the New Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nupes), also reacted strongly to these comments. “Jews are always responsible for what happens to them. This is a constant in anti-Semitic discourse”, replied PS senator Laurence Rossignol to Louis Boyard. “To the useful idiots of the Hamas terrorists who exonerate them by putting them into perspective in the name of the political impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of the continuation of colonization, of Netanyahu… you disgust me. That we find them on the left is intolerable”, said the socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj also in a message on.
The president of the Court of Auditors and former socialist minister Pierre Moscovici came out of his reserve to judge “as shocking as it is despairing” the positioning of LFI.
All French political forces unreservedly condemn the Hamas attack against Israel, which has already left dozens of civilians dead. All… except one! For anyone with a left heart, it is as shocking as it is despairing. pic.twitter.com/MdjktAHiU7
— Pierre Moscovici (@pierremoscovici) October 7, 2023
Among the rebels, the deputy François Ruffin, one of the potential candidates for the 2027 presidential election, stood out from his party comrades by expressing “total condemnation of the Hamas attack”. However, he issued “fears” because the response to this attack “ be in the hands of the most brutal Israeli government in thirty years”.
Communists and environmentalists denounce the attacks
Still on the left, environmentalists and communists have clearly denounced the Hamas attacks. For the communist leader Fabien Roussel, they are “unacceptable and unjustifiable”. But he calls for “get rid of selective indignation” and believes that the Israeli government “contributed heavily to this spiral”. Guest on France 3 Sunday morning, Fabien Roussel added that he hoped “the forces of the left” se “unite on a clear call for peace and to denounce these terrorist acts.”
In a press release, EELV condemns “these particularly appalling events without any ambiguity” and calls for “political and diplomatic solutions to stop the violence”. On X, the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau deplores a “intolerable attack” with “civilians targeted”.
#Israel is the subject of an intolerable attack. Civilians are being targeted, this is unacceptable. https://t.co/TntmUE6FFg
— Sandrine Rousseau (@sandrousseau) October 7, 2023
Same tone from the side of the national secretary of EELV, Marine Tondelier, who shares on “immense fear at the horror of the attacks” and invokes the “indisputable right of Israelis to live in security”. The elected official, however, believes that these attacks “must not justify an indiscriminate reaction against civilians in Gaza”.
The deputy for La France insoumise Arnaud Le Gall responded to these criticisms on Sunday morning on franceinfo. “If criticizing the Israeli far-right government, which is denounced by Israeli NGOs and by numerous Jewish associations around the world, is being anti-Semitic, I no longer understand anything,” he argued.