A new position taken by LFI that is getting people talking. After the rebroadcast of remarks made by David Guiraud about the conflict between Israel and Hamas, during a conference organized Friday night in Tunisia, the deputy La France Insoumise is under fire on X (formerly Twitter). In particular, he is accused of downplaying the horror of the attacks suffered by Israel on 7 October. Explanations.
What did David Guiraud say and in what context?
The MP was invited to a conference in Tunis on Friday evening, alongside journalist and activist Taha Bouhafs and Rima Hassan, a French and pro-Palestinian activist. The purpose of the meeting was to publicly defend the Palestinian cause, to discuss ways to do so, and to comment on French support for this cause, which was deemed insufficient, if not invisible, in the French media.
In several isolated sequences by columnist Hala Oukili on X, the elected representative of the North criticizes in particular the march against anti-Semitism planned for this Sunday. He castigated the speaker of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, for affirming her unconditional support for Israel, "a folly" according to him.
Frankly very disturbing speech by MP @GuiraudInd on the October 7 attack and on the rise of anti-Semitism in France...
This discourse is even more disturbing when we know that it is being held in Tunisia. https://t.co/dLxsBls8YV pic.twitter.com/nMqpNoetZb
— Hala Oukili (@HalaOukili) November 10, 2023
"After that, it was the festival. We have political leaders in France who have completely swallowed, swallowed, all the elements of language of the propaganda of a colonial state carrying out ethnic cleansing," continued David Guiraud. He added: "It reminded me of an old saying that every accusation of Israel is a confession," seeming to suggest that the Israeli state is lying about some of the horrors experienced on October 7.
"That's when I found myself saying, 'Wait, but the human shields were used by Israel. We know that, it's proven. Baby in the oven! (...) The baby in the oven was indeed made by Israel. The disemboweled mother, it's true, was done by Israel in forty, I think it's Sabra and Shatila. »
Later, during a question-and-answer session, David Guiraud denounced an "instrumentalization" in France "of the question of anti-Semitism," aimed at "extinguishing any criticism of Israel." While acknowledging later that he wanted to show his support for the French Jews who had been attacked.
What was David Guiraud referring to?
Speaking of "human shields," Guiraud was referring to the Israeli army's denunciations that Hamas terrorists manage their operations against Israel from sensitive buildings, such as Gaza's Shifa Hospital. On Twitter, the lawmaker clarified his remarks, saying Israeli forces did the same in 2009, when a Palestinian boy was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers were given three-month suspended sentences in 2010, the Guardian reports.
The LFI MP then referred to a persistent but unverified rumor about an Israeli baby possibly killed in an oven during the Hamas attacks. As Checknews explained at the end of October, part of the Israeli army, rescue workers on the ground, as well as Israeli journalists, claimed that there was nothing to say that this tragedy had really happened.
Read alsoIsrael-Gaza: propaganda, false images... When the "information weapon" feeds social networks
As for the disemboweled woman "Sabra and Shatila", David Guiraud was referring to the massacre perpetrated in 1982 (not in <>) against Palestinians living in the Sabra and Shatila neighborhoods of Beirut, Lebanon. During the attack, hundreds of people were murdered by a Lebanese Christian militia, aided by the Israeli army that had just entered the Lebanese capital.
During these massacres, a Lebanese resident of the Sabra camp said she saw "a pregnant woman who had her baby torn from her womb", according to an AFP report from 2022, taken up by the Belgian newspaper Le Vif, and relayed by David Guiraud.
What are the reactions?
On social media, the LFI politician's remarks, deemed to deny the reality of Hamas' attacks, triggered a wave of indignation. On Saturday, the Licra compared David Guiraud to Paul Ferdonnet, nicknamed the "traitor of Stuttgart". This French journalist and far-right activist had become known in the interwar period for his pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic propaganda.
⚖️We refer the matter to the Committee on Legal Affairs concerning the despicable remarks made by Mr Guiraud, which are based on the crassest Holocaust denial.
Neither immunity nor impunity. https://t.co/E7pe9z7on5
— Licra (@_LICRA_) November 11, 2023
The association also announced, on X, that it would refer the matter to its legal committee "about the despicable remarks of MP Guiraud, struck at the corner of the crassest negationism". This passage through the committee could trigger the opening of a procedure, such as a report to the public prosecutor's office, or the filing of a complaint. Meyer Habib, a Franco-Israeli LR deputy for the French Abroad, has also announced his intention to file a complaint. At the same time, he called for the lifting of David Guiraud's parliamentary immunity "so that he can answer for his actions before the courts".
For his part, LR senator Stéphane Le Rudulier also described the LFI deputy's statements as "negationists". In a statement, he called for the "reactivation of the crime of national indignity, created in August 1944 by an ordinance of General de Gaulle against citizens, elected officials and political parties advocating terrorism." The elected representative of Bouches-du-Rhône also called for the "dissolution of LFI, which has been multiplying anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying statements for a month."
This !️sequence is beyond comprehension!
On Friday, November 10, MP @FranceInsoumise @GuiraudInd delivered a landmark anti-Semitic and conspiratorial sermon in Tunisia.
Combining accusatory inversions and live Holocaust denial, David Guiraud delivers a charge... https://t.co/aYFKe7V1w8
— Joel Rubinfeld (@joelrubinfeld) November 11, 2023
Elsewhere in Quiévrain, Joel Rubinfeld, president of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism, also denounced "an anti-Semitic and conspiratorial sermon that will go down in history." He said he had reported the comments to Pharos, the French platform for reporting fraudulent content online.
What does David Guiraud say to the controversy?
Mentioned several times on X, David Guiraud published, in the afternoon, a long thread aimed at clarifying and contextualizing his words. "No, I wasn't 'relativizing' Hamas' war crimes, which we have clearly condemned. Let me be clear, I have never doubted the massacre, nor the atrocity of the acts committed against civilians. The tone was light, on a serious subject, I admit, it was perhaps a mistake to give this impression of levity," he said.
He then defended his positions at the conference, castigating "the lies of the Israeli state throughout history until today, and the degree of disinformation it brings into the public debate that often carelessly picks up extremely shocking elements... But not true."