In France as in the West, pro-Israelis are adopting new elements of language to defend Israel, such as attempts to equate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
The objective is to pit Muslims and Jews against each other in order to make people believe that what is happening in Palestine is a war of religions.
The new elements of language are intended both to silence dissenting voices, that is to say those who continue to believe that there is a historical injustice in Palestine that must be repaired, and to cover up the crimes of the Israeli army, more and more blatant and undeniable.
Sometimes pro-Israelis fall into ridicule. Very recently, a hashtag calling for a boycott of the show “ Touche pas à mon poste (TPMP) ” broadcast on C8, appeared on social networks.
The initiators of this action find that the content of the comments made on the set of the host Cyril Hanouna by the columnists and the guests are neither neutral nor objective with regard to what is happening in Palestine.
Cyril Hanouna complained about this in several French media, going so far as to describe the call to boycott his show as an act of “ anti-Semitism ”.
No doubt, Cyril Hanouna did not make this conclusion because he himself is Jewish. It is rather an element of language increasingly used by supporters of Israel, which is to assimilate any criticism of the Israeli far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, of politics, and even of its crimes to anti-Semitism.
The accusation also directly targeted Jean-Luc Mélenchon and all the executives of La France Insoumise (LFI) from the first day of the operation launched by Hamas on October 7, when they insisted on showing solidarity with all the victims “ wherever they are ” and to put back on the table the real cause which led to this situation, namely the colonization policy of successive Israeli governments, particularly the current one, and the complicit silence of the West.
Mélenchon made this inspired remark that it is the anti-Semites who accuse him of anti-Semitism, in reference to the extreme right’s heavy history of hatred of Jews.
If France has equipped itself with a legal arsenal against anti-Semitism and the denial of crimes against humanity, it is partly because of the slip-ups on the issue of certain figures of the extreme right, including Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front which became (after what they call demonization) the National Rally whose leaders today distribute the good and bad points of tolerance towards Jews in the country.
Assimilating anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism on television or in newspaper columns does not, however, seem to be enough to silence criticism of Israel. Some in France want to go further and penalize anti-Zionism.
France: a bill to penalize anti-Zionism
Stéphane le Rudulier, senator from Les Républicains, tabled a bill along these lines with 16 of his colleagues. “ The explosion of anti-Semitism is fueled by hatred of Israel, the false nose of hatred of Jews ,” he wrote on the former Twitter. The penalties proposed by his project are very heavy: up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
Of course, he does not explain where the border will be between the anti-Zionism to be repressed and the criticism of the policies of the State of Israel. Unless its objective is to put this country and its leaders above any challenge to the bellicose policies of Israeli governments. For the moment, the project has only provoked ridicule on social networks.
In France and in many Western countries, another element of language has appeared in the debates since October 7.
Many speakers invite us to distinguish between children who die in the conflict, depending on whether they are Israeli or Palestinian.
The horrible images arriving from the Gaza Strip are undermining the pro-Israeli defense line. Since October 7, Israeli army bombings have killed more than 8,500 people, including 3,500 children.
According to UNICEF, 420 children are killed or injured every day in the Palestinian enclave. It is unacceptable “ but it was Hamas who started it ”, we often hear on French TV sets.
Or that we must distinguish between children killed intentionally (by Hamas) and those who die as “ collateral victims ” of the bombs that the Israeli army drops on inhabited buildings.
This line of defense was inspired by Benyamin Netanyahu before being taken up by pro-Israelis in France.
Faced with the extent of international solidarity with the Palestinians in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, Benyamin Netanyahu’s supporters try to find the solution each time, to avoid debating the real reasons for Hamas’s attacks. and Israel’s ongoing war against the Palestinians, namely colonization and repression.
