French MP defends attacks on Israelis, claims they 'supported genocide'

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has reported France Insoumise MP Marie Mesmeur to the Paris Prosecutor after she made a post on X/Twitter condoning Thursday’s violent attacks on Israelis in Amsterdam.

In the original post, made on November 8, Mesmeur wrote, “These people here were not lynched because they were Jewish, but instead because they were racist and supported a genocide.”

This came after multiple Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were beaten, thrown into canals, chased with knives, and targeted by attackers in vehicles on Thursday night.

Mesmeur’s comments caused outrage among politicians and Jewish groups, with the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism accusing Mesmeur of justifying “pogromist violence.”

Mesmeur, who is a deputy of the French National Assembly, subsequently took to social media to post a statement condemning the “vile campaign of harassment and insults from far-right networks” she claimed to have been subjected to as a result of the post.

However, France’s left wing also condemned Mesmeur’s words. Socialist president of the Occitania region, Carole Delga, said, “Each of your words damages the [French] Republic a little more. This endorsement of violence and antisemitism is destructive.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by Senator Laurence Rossignol, who said, “When we confuse terrorism and resistance, mass rapes and heroism, it’s no wonder we end up justifying lynching!”

Loïg Chesnais-Girard, the president of the Regional Council of Brittany, said, “To justify a lynching is to endorse the methods of those you claim to be fighting. Against racism and antisemitism, the Republic must never respond with violence!”

Later on Saturday evening, Minister Retailleau said he had reported the comments to the Paris Prosecutor under Article 40 of the Criminal Code on account of Mesmeur condoning a crime.

Mesmeur justifies post

Responding to Retailleau and the condemnation, Mesmeur said her “mistake” was speaking of the “Maccabi Tel Aviv fans who distinguished themselves with clearly racist slogans and violent provocations before some of them then suffered attacks in Amsterdam.”

“Did I say that their acts of violence and slogans justified the aggressions they suffered? Evidently not.”

Le harcèlement et la diffamation, aussi violents soient-ils, n'entammeront jamais mon engagement contre le racisme et l'antisémitismeMon communiqué ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/eqtZXzPL2S

— Marie Mesmeur (@MarieMesmeur) November 9, 2024

When contacted by Le Télégramme, Marie Mesmeur justified her post by saying that the Israelis “called for the killing of Arabs in public and took up genocidal and pro-Netanyahu chants.”

“What is just as unbearable is that politicians and journalists are suggesting that these organized Israeli criminal hooligans who committed and sang atrocities were attacked because they were Jewish,” she added.

“However, this is not the case. They were attacked following this chain of violence. Some people consider us antisemitic because we refuse to say that these people were attacked because they were Jewish,” she wrote.