Mathilde Panot, president of the La France insoumise (LFI) group in the National Assembly, and Rima Hassan, a candidate for the same party in the European elections, were summoned by the police on April 30th for investigations into “apology of terrorism” following comments related to the war in the Middle East. Panot is being questioned for a statement released by her parliamentary group on October 7th, the same day Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel, which was criticized for drawing parallels between the attack by the Islamist movement and the Israeli occupation policy in the Palestinian territories. Rima Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian activist, is being questioned for comments made between November 5th and December 1st, where she allegedly stated that Hamas was conducting a legitimate action.
A support rally organized by LFI was held for Panot, where she was expected to speak. The convocations for both Panot and Hassan were initiated by complaints filed by the European Jewish Organization (OJE), with the LFI party accusing them of using the justice system to silence pro-Palestinian voices. LFI has been vocal in denouncing the situation in Gaza as a “genocide” and has made the defense of the Palestinian cause a central focus of their campaign for the European elections. They have criticized what they perceive as an authoritarian drift and an attempt to stifle voices in support of Palestine through legal means.
The cancellation of a conference in Lille on the situation in the Middle East, featuring Hassan and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has also drawn criticism from LFI, who see it as a further attempt to suppress discussions on the Palestinian issue. Additionally, Minister of Higher Education Sylvie Retailleau announced a lawsuit for “public insult” against Mélenchon after he compared the university president of Lille to a Nazi following the cancellation of their conference. Mélenchon defended his statement, stating that it was meant to highlight the president’s actions and was not an accusation of being a Nazi, and accused Retailleau of using the legal action as a distraction from the issue of Palestinian genocide.
Hassan expressed concern over the increasing criminalization of voices speaking out on the Palestinian issue, while acknowledging that the investigators were simply doing their job in response to what she described as abusive complaints from pro-Israeli organizations. The situation has raised questions about the balance between freedom of expression and public order, with critics seeing the legal actions against Panot and Hassan as attempts to silence legitimate debates on the Middle East conflict. The LFI party, on the other hand, views these actions as a form of censorship and an infringement on their right to express their support for the Palestinian cause.
