French figures shamelessly defend the indefensible in Gaza
The CFCM is dismayed and shocked to hear political, religious and media figures shamelessly repeating the language of the most extremist Israeli leaders.
During his interview on BFMTV, the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, was repeatedly asked about the massacres in Gaza which are shaking humanity.
Asked whether he was “uncomfortable” with the flagrant violations of international conventions, including humanitarian law and children’s rights, he answered in the negative and even called for ” finish the job “, thus taking up the expression used by Netanyahu.
He also described the atrocities committed as mere ” war facts “, which could denote a total and assumed absence of empathy towards innocent civilian victims, notably the thousands of Palestinian children who are amputated every day without anesthesia, orphaned, murdered, starved and thirsty by Israeli decision-makers.
It is highly deplorable that the Chief Rabbi of France has stepped outside his role as a religious and spiritual guide and man of faith, by adopting a discourse that is at odds with the transcendent principle of the preservation of innocent human lives, which is at the heart of every monotheistic religion.
Following the decisions of the National Observatory for the Fight against Islamophobia, attached to the CFCM, and of MP Aymeric Caron to each take legal action following the comments made by the Chief Rabbi of France, the MP for French People Abroad, Caroline Yadan, posted – before deleting it – this provocative tweet: “ After defending mosquitoes, the Versailles MP (…) is looking for a scapegoat….Long live the animal cause! “.
This tweet reminds us of the attitude of Israeli officials, who dehumanize Palestinians by constantly comparing them to animals, something that Caroline Yadan can hardly ignore.
On the i24news channel, Robert Ménard very virulently attacked Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which rightly denounced the murders committed by the Israeli army against journalists in Palestine.
In doing so, he is going against the grain of RSF, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists and some sixty other international organisations, which have just asked the EU to demand accountability from Israel for the unpunished murders of journalists, the number of which now exceeds 160 victims.
This anthology of chilling and shocking remarks is only a glimpse of the blind and radical drift that some seem to have taken, through a worrying distortion of our principles.
The idea, contrary to everything we believe in, that Israel has an unlimited right to collective punishment and blind and irrational vengeance, without any limits, unfortunately seems to be shared by a part of the public figures of our country who, more and more, affirm it ” without blushing “, to use the expression of the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia.
The French Council of the Muslim Faithn
Paris, August 30, 2024
