France’s left-wing La France Insoumise Party has come under condemnation for its language related to last Friday’s Hamas attacks on Israel, which was unanimously denounced by the entire French political society.
“The armed offensive by Palestinian forces led by Hamas comes against a backdrop of intensification of Israel’s policy of occupation in Gaza, the [Jordan] West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
La France Insoumise (LFI) is an organisation of the Left in the European Parliament.
These Saturday comments followed statements by several leaders of France’s radical left, including movement leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. He stated on X, formerly Twitter, that “all the violence unleashed against Israel and Gaza proves only one thing: violence only produces and reproduces itself.”
France’s political class, including its left-wing allies, criticised his comments. Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj told BFMTV that he was “stunned, disgusted and frightened to see that at this moment we can […] look for circumstances to explain the intervention of terrorists.”
Any statement that does not condemn Hamas terrorism and Israeli civilian victims […] is disgusting.
MP Valérie Rabault supported his point of view by criticising the wording of the press release on X.
It disgusts me that some on the left should refer to Hamas as ‘the Palestinian armed forces.’ Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
The EU, the US and other countries classify Hamas, an Islamist organisation that advocates the destruction of the state of Israel, as a terrorist organisation.
