The Cercle Droit et Débats is chaired by Noëlle Lenoir and its member includes Jean-Éric Schoettl, former secretary general of the Constitutional Council.
The atrocities of Hamas's offensive against Israel have provoked unanimous condemnation from the political parties represented in parliament, with the notable exception of France Insoumise. It refused to condemn or even name terrorism.
To equate the aggressor and the attacked, to find extenuating circumstances for the killers, to equate the targeting of civilian populations with a national liberation struggle is already intolerable. But some go even further within the "decolonial" far left: they explicitly and publicly subscribe to the exterminating agenda of the Islamists of Hamas.
Thus, the "New Anti-Capitalist Party" (NPA), "refusing to join the litany of calls for so-called de-escalation," issued a statement supporting the Hamas terrorists' raid on Israel, as well as the "means of struggle they have chosen to resist." For its part, the small group called the "Indigenous Peoples of the Republic" posted the following tribute on Twitter: "May the Palestinian Resistance, which carries out its action with determination and confidence in heroic conditions, receive in these terrible hours all our militant brotherhood. Palestine will win, and her Victory will be ours.Glory to the Palestinian resistance." The message was accompanied by a cartoon of Hamas "fighters" entering Israeli territory in microlights, the same "fighters" who perpetrated a pogrom in the border area, massacred several hundred young Israelis who had come to take part in a rave party and kidnapped dozens of civilian hostages of all ages.
This glorification, which is morally inadmissible, is based on identification with our worst enemies and is also punishable by law.
Law Circle and Debates
The glorification of the terrorist operation carried out from the Gaza Strip reflects to the point of nausea, through the execration of the Jewish state, the intensity of the hatred that the Islamist-leftist sphere generally devotes to Western civilization, its Judeo-Christian foundations and its Enlightenment culture. It's the same hatred that massacres at the Bataclan and at the Israeli rave party.
This glorification, which is morally inadmissible, is based on identification with our worst enemies and is also punishable by law.
Pursuant to Article L 212-1 of the Internal Security Code (as amended by the Law of 24 August 2021 reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic), "all associations or de facto groupings: 1° Which cause [...] violent acts against persons or property ... (6) Or who either provoke or contribute by their actions to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of persons by reason of their membership of a nation, or propagates ideas or theories tending to justify or encourage such discrimination, hatred or violence; 7° Or who engage, on French territory or from this territory, in acts with a view to provoking acts of terrorism in France or abroad.
»The Criminal Code allows, on the initiative of the administrative authority, the removal of content that glorifies terrorist acts.
Law Circle and Debates
Article 421-2-5 of the Criminal Code stipulates that "The act of directly inciting acts of terrorism or publicly advocating such acts is punishable by five years' imprisonment and a fine of €75,000 [...]".
Article 24 of the law of 29 July 1881 on freedom of the press punishes those who publicly advocate war crimes or crimes against humanity with five years' imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. The same article punishes with one year's imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 those who publicly incite discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of persons on account of their membership of a particular nation, race or religion.
Finally, Article 6-1 of the Law of 21 June 2004 on confidence in the digital economy, amended by Article 12 of the Law of 13 November 2014 on the fight against terrorism, allows, on the initiative of the administrative authority, the removal of content that glorifies terrorist acts.
These groups must be dissolved and their online propaganda must stop.
Law Circle and Debates
The above-mentioned provisions of the Internal Security Code and those of the Law on Confidence in the Digital Economy are directly applicable to the communiqués of the NPA and the Indigenous Peoples of the Republic exalting the Hamas terrorist raid on Israeli territory, which was accompanied by crimes against humanity. These groups must be dissolved and their online propaganda must stop. The other provisions mentioned above apply no less directly to those of their officers or members who have relayed these communiqués by public statements.
If they really intend to combat the violence of the zealots of Hamas, an organization classified as terrorist by the European Union, the public authorities must act quickly, both by issuing decrees of dissolution and blocking of websites and by referring the matter to the public prosecutor's office for legal action. Our safety is at stake as much as our honour.
*List of signatories:
Noëlle Lenoir, honorary member of the Constitutional Council.
Pierre-Henri Conac, Professor of Law.
Dominique de la Garanderie, former President of the Paris Bar Association.
Jean-Claude Magendie, former First President of the Paris Court of Appeal.
Jean-Yves Naouri, business manager.
Emmanuel Piwnica, attorney-at-law.
Jean-Éric Schoettl, former Secretary General of the Constitutional Council.
Philippe Valletoux, consultant.