France has announced a plan to ban two Palestinian advocacy groups based in the country. Gerald Darmanin, France’s Minister of the Interior, on February 24 tweeted that he would disband Collectif Palestine Vaincra (Palestine Will Win) and Comité Palestine Action (Palestine Action Committee).
France's Interior Minister announced that he is banning two Palestine solidarity organisations at the request of French President, Emmanuel Macron.
Gerald Darmanin tweeted yesterday that he will move to dissolve Palestine Will Win and Palestine Action Committee. pic.twitter.com/Z3PRNXYwnB— Dr Nedal Abu-Alkhair (@NedalAlkhair) February 25, 2022
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, ordered Darmanin to dismantle the groups for allegedly promoting hatred against Israel.
Europe1, a French newspaper, said that the government accuses the groups of promoting hatred of Israel “under the cover of supporting the Palestinian cause.”
Darmanin said that Collectif Palestine Viancra was accused of “calling for hatred, discrimination, and violence.” The group’s link to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group outlawed in Israel, is one of the reasons behind the dissolution. The group’s relationship with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network (Samidoun) was also a reason for dissolving the group, Darmanin added.
Tom Martin, a spokesman for Collectif Palestine Vaincra, called the interior minister’s plan an “attack against the solidarity movement towards Palestine and all anti-racist forces.”We condemn this announcement in the strongest terms and are preparing a legal and political response,” Martin said.
This type of criminalization reflects the French state’s ongoing attempts to cover up its crimes of colonialism throughout the region and its complicity in Israeli war crimes. #SolidaritéCollectifPalestineVaincra https://t.co/UjZTLkUkuD
— Free Ahmad Saadat (@FreeAhmadSaadat) February 26, 2022
According to Darmanin, Collectif Palestine Vaincra is playing the victim card, claiming that they have been “oppressed by imperialism and world Zionism” and for “spreading the idea of there being Islamophobia at a global level.”
The Palestine Action Committee (PAC) is also being dissolved at Macron’s behest. The group is allegedly “relaying statements from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine and Hezbollah and reporting on their actions.”
On their website, PAC wrote that they are working “for the realization of the national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular the right to self-determination and the right of return for refugees.” However, according to the French government, PAC incites “hatred, violence or discrimination and provoking terrorist acts.”
Samidoun condemned France’s actions against Palestinian groups, calling it a “blatant assault on freedom of expression and association.” The group also accused France of disregarding “principles of human rights and democracy.”
