La France Insoumise (LFI) was accused Saturday of finding justifications for Hamas' attack on Israel, which has caused many civilian deaths, by denouncing with one voice the Islamist movement and Israeli colonization, a position out of step with the rest of the political class.
"The armed offensive by Palestinian forces led by Hamas comes in a context of intensifying Israeli occupation policy in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem," the parliamentary group of the Radical Left party said in a statement.
Party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon explained that "all the violence unleashed against Israel and Gaza proves only one thing: violence only produces and reproduces itself." "Horrified, our thoughts and sympathy go out to all the distraught people who are victims of all this. The ceasefire must be imposed," he added on Platform X.
All the violence unleashed against Israel and Gaza proves only one thing: violence produces and reproduces only itself. Horrified, our thoughts and sympathy go out to all the distraught people who are victims of all this. A ceasefire must be imposed. La France...
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) October 7, 2023
A position still supported by LFI MP Louis Boyard: "Too long that France closes its eyes to colonization and abuses in Palestine. Too long that France has put the violence of the Israeli state back to back with that of Palestinian armed groups."
LFI ruffles on the left
These statements by LFI, at a time when the political class was almost unanimous in condemning Hamas' attacks, aroused the anger of socialist elected officials, allies of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's party within the New Ecological and Social People's Union (Nupes). "Jews are always responsible for what happens to them. This is a constant in anti-Semitic discourse," PS senator Laurence Rossignol replied to Louis Boyard.
"To the useful idiots of the Hamas terrorists who exonerate them by relativizing in the name of the political impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the continuation of colonization, Netanyahu... You disgust me. The fact that they are on the left is unbearable," said Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj.
" READ ALSO A UDI deputy accuses France of supporting a Palestinian "terrorist", turmoil in the Assembly
The president of the Court of Auditors and former Socialist minister Pierre Moscovici came out of his reserve to judge LFI's position "as shocking as it is despairing". The mayor of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, a member of Édouard Philippe Horizons' party, for his part, called for "the lifting of parliamentary immunity" of the rebellious deputies who "have crossed the red line", inviting "the Licra and the Crif to file a complaint".
"Shame on LFI for putting an attacked democracy and a murderous terrorist regime back to back. This equivalence is in fact a legitimization of Hamas' terrorism," denounced the president of the CRIF, Yonathan Arfi, without however directly responding to Mr. Robinet.
Ruffin stands out
Among the rebels, MP François Ruffin, one of the potential candidates for the 2027 presidential election, distinguished himself from his party comrades by expressing "total condemnation of the Hamas attack". Also on the left, the Socialists and Greens have clearly denounced Hamas' attacks, as have the right and the far right.
Communist leader Fabien Roussel called Hamas' attacks "unacceptable and unjustifiable." But he called for "getting rid of selective indignation" and said the Israeli government "has contributed heavily to this spiral."
Dead, wounded, hostage-taking: total condemnation of the Hamas attack. The images that reach us, their violence, are unbearable.
That the answer lies in the hands of Israel's most brutal government in 30 years fuels the greatest
fears for the people.
— François Ruffin (@Francois_Ruffin) October 7, 2023
"The strikes by the Hamas terror group on Israeli territory are an unacceptable act of war that is making any hope for peace a little more distant every day. In these difficult times, we stand more than ever by the side of Israeli democracy," Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally party, wrote on X.
The executive, for its part, condemned "in the strongest terms" the attacks by Hamas, with the Foreign Ministry, Emmanuel Macron and then Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne taking a similar position. Macron also held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his counterpart Isaac Herzog.