French Hypocrisy

The French authorities have prohibited a public demonstration in support of the Palestinians in Gaza victims of Israeli aggression. The country which prides itself on its defense of human rights is turning a blind eye to the sufferings of Palestinians whom are subjected to massive onslaughts by the Israeli war machine.

My father who served as Delegate General, Ambassador of Palestine to France during the presidencies of Valerie d’Estaing, and François Mitterrand in the 70s and 80s told me that such a restrictive measure was unheard of in the past. France today is governed by president François Holland’s socialist party which during Mitterrand’s two presidencies (from 1981 to 1995) prided itself in playing a balanced role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and seeking to help the Palestinians and Israelis find a solution based on justice and security for two states. Today, France has relinquished this role. Instead it has openly supported the repressive and discriminatory policies of Israel’s government where racist ministers form a solid constituency and has found harsh terms to condemn Hamas’s rocket attacks against Israel forgetting that Gaza has been subjected to the most inhumane blockade by Israel for the last decade and that the other part of the Palestinian territory, the West Bank is still under a harsh occupation.

France is now back on the track traced by the colonialist policies of the 4th Republic which slaughtered more than one million Algerians back in the fifties and committed massive crimes in trying to control countries like Vietnam and Cambodia in South East Asia. Back on this track which puts aggressor and victim on the same footing. President Holland’s lame explanation about “avoiding to import a foreign conflict into France” while trying to explain the banning of the pro-Palestinian manifestation and his repeated condemnations of “Palestinian violence” plays exactly into the same register as all the Israeli biased declarations that we have been hearing since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdiWvWPFF2Q

These positions have provoked a huge outcry in French public opinion which luckily can see the distinction between “Palestinian violence” and Israel’s genocidal policies. No matter how the pro-Zionist French government strives to project a prejudiced image of the realities on the ground, no matter how it seeks to influence the media, the French public cannot condone such a policy. The French can distinguish between right and wrong. Between the occupier and the occupied. It does not accept the demonization of Hamas either. It might not agree with some of the irresponsible reactions of the Islamic group but sees Israel in its true light as pursuing a colonialist policy fraught with mass killings, internment camps where thousands of Palestinians are parked and continued violations of international law. France as a permanent member of the Security Council of the UN should know that Israel has beat the record in the international organization as the state which has flouted all international resolutions for the last half century.

It is high time that the French public puts pressure on its government to go back to the moral high ground. The country of human rights should again play a major role in helping the parties achieve a just and durable settlement based on a two state solution.