A “provocation”of the “politics” Or “an attack on freedom of expression” ? The organization of a conference on “Palestinian news”, Thursday April 18, with the intervention of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassan, Franco-Palestinian candidate of La France insoumise (LFI) at the European elections, causes a stir. While it was to be held at the University of Lille, the establishment gave up on Wednesday, judging that “conditions [n’étaient] more united to guarantee the serenity of the debates.
Organized by the Free Palestine association, the meeting was first moved to another location in the Lille metropolis, before finally being banned by the Northern prefecture on Thursday afternoon. Franceinfo summarizes what happened.
A meeting on “Palestinian news” planned at the University of Lille
LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and European election candidate Rima Hassan were initially scheduled to attend a meeting around “Palestinian news”, at 6 p.m., Thursday, at the University of Lille. The event was organized on the initiative of a student association defending the Palestinian cause, Libre Palestine.
The participation in a debate on the conflict in the Middle East of the former candidate for the presidential election and the Franco-Palestinian lawyer, some of whose comments on the subject of Israel have caused controversy in recent months, is part of the party’s strategy for the European elections.
Part of the political class demands the cancellation of the event
The controversy arose on Monday around the association’s logo, printed on the presentation poster for the evening, alongside photos of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassan. This logo represents a territory encompassing Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, on which the name of the Free Palestine association is affixed..
“On the campaign poster (…) there is a ‘Free Palestine’ logo. What does this mean for the future of Israel?”thus questioned South Radio the socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj. If the elected official clarified the next day on the social network cancellation of the event.
The conference and its organizers, “through the Free Palestine logo, deny the existence of the State of Israel”reacted on the president (LR) of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand, calling for its cancellation. A request shared by RN deputy Sébastien Chenu, who anticipates that “anti-Semitic remarks will probably be made” on this occasion. Renaissance MP Violette Spillebout wrote to the president of the university to highlight the “very heavy responsibility” of LFI “in the anti-Semitic explosion in France”.
The controversy reignites tensions on the left
Very quickly denouncing the criticism, the LFI regional advisors of Hauts-de-France noted in a press release released Monday that the association was “approved” by the university. The association also assured AFP that its logo “born [niait] in no case the existence of Israel”. “It’s an association logo, made by students, we have to stop seeing what we want to put on it”explained Nicolas Heyn on behalf of the Lille rebels to the AFP, denouncing “derisory controversies”.
The episode, however, revived tensions on the left, while LFI is credited with 6 to 8% of voting intentions in the polls, far behind the Socialists. “When we are a political party, we do not display ourselves with logos that deny the existence of the State of Israel. It’s as simple as that”judged, on TF1, the head of the socialist list, Raphaël Glucksmann, while opposing the ban on the conference.
“Those who are worried about a logo would do well to worry about a reality which today consists, through the policies of Mr. Netanyahu, of making the existence of a Palestinian state impossible”responded for his part LFI MP Matthias Tavel, director of the LFI campaign for the European elections.
University of Lille cancels conference due to “tensions”
The University of Lille decided on Wednesday to ban the conference. “The conditions are no longer met to guarantee the serenity of the debates” due to the rise “worrying” international tensions after “the military escalation that occurred on April 13 and 14 in the Middle East”justifies the establishment (PDF document). The tensions “reverberates nationally and locally, just as it does at the university”underlined management to explain its decision.
LFI describes the decision as “censorship” and maintains the meeting in another location
Following the decision of the University of Lille, LFI moved the event “in a new place”. “We will not be silent”, explains the training on. The party crushes as it passes “the presidency of the university, which shows itself incapable of resisting the pressures which attack freedom of expression”. A leaflet was immediately distributed to announce the relocation of the event to the L’Impérial hall in Lille, at 6:30 p.m. On the leaflet, it is also written: “No to censorship !” And “News in Palestine, conference maintained!”
A sign of the tensions surrounding the subject of the war in Gaza on the left, the rebels targeted the Socialist Party in their criticism. “It will have been enough for PS Jérôme Guedj to denounce the logo of the student association and for a Macronist MP to call for disorder to destroy academic freedom and its guarantors to go to bed without resistance”, was indignant on X Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “No ban was requested by the PS”responded a few hours later the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure, on X. “We are in low politics”added on franceinfo Jérôme Guedj, Thursday.
Rima Hassan’s lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, also announced on Thursday his intention to file a complaint against Yoann Usai, journalist for the CNews channel. The day before, he had declared on the air that the candidate had “the hatred of Jews anchored in my body since birth”. Of the “totally outrageous remarks”, denounces the lawyer in a press release published on X.
The Northern Prefecture bans the meeting
The relocated conference was ultimately also banned by the prefect of the North. The prefecture justifies its decision by “risk of disturbing public order (…) in a climate of increased geopolitical tensions”a “exceptional mobilization of internal security forces”particularly as part of the Vigipirate plan “emergency attack”.
She cites several events also planned “at the same time” : a football match “classified as risk” between Losc and Aston Villa FC at the Pierre Mauroy stadium and the commemoration of the Warsaw ghetto uprising at the Lille synagogue. The prefecture also cites the limited reception capacity of the new room, “note not allowing us to welcome the public announced and re-invited by the organizer”.
In reaction, LFI said it had filed with the prefecture an appointment for a public gathering at the same time in the street “with a speech by Jean-Luc Mélenchon against censorship and for peace”. The party denounces a “intolerable relentlessness” And “an extremely serious precedent for our democracy”.
“Still banned from meeting. Yesterday the university. But today the prefecture and in an open public place. (…) Forbidding us from meeting on the pretext of our subject is an abuse of power of a banana republic”, reacted on Jean-Luc Mélenchon.