Gaza: stop the massacre! France should act to respect the law
Data update (2 p.m.)
Number of deaths in Gaza: 2,215 people, including 714 children Number of injured in Gaza: 8,000 people
Number of deaths in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: 54 people
The world woke up on Friday, October 13, to the monstrous plan of the Israeli authorities: a massive displacement of the entire population of the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, to the south of this tiny territory.
Apart from the fact that it is impossible to move a million people in 24 hours and that they will not find any infrastructure to accommodate them, we must understand what this means: a land intervention which threatens to raze all of this territory which the large city of Gaza, with homes, offices, schools, universities, cultural centers, international representations including those of the UN…
Should we also remember that since October 7 the Gaza Strip has been subjected to a deluge of bombs, that entire neighborhoods have been razed, and that families have been decimated? There are already 1,900 dead and 7,700 injured, including 614 children. Israel has decided to cut off all access to food, water and energy from the Gaza Strip. It is an unprecedented human catastrophe that threatens the men, women and children of Gaza.
In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the situation is also very serious: attacks by the army and settlers against the Palestinian population have left 51 dead and 950 injured since October 7.
The largest Palestinian human rights organizations, in a joint statement, call on all third states to “protect the Palestinian people against genocide”. It’s not a word they use without having carefully weighed it. What is being prepared is the erasure of a people, their means of existence and their living environment.
Hundreds of Israeli civilians suffered war crimes that our organization denounced. But what the State of Israel is committing is a war crime and a crime against humanity on an unprecedented scale against the Palestinian people.
In this situation, France continues to support the Israeli military offensive, with lip service requests to spare civilians. It does not denounce the total and catastrophic siege imposed on the population of Gaza, it does not question the monstrous plan of displacement of the population and destruction prepared by Israel, it does not demand an end to the bombings which are destroying neighborhoods. whole and massively kill civilians.
In a completely unprecedented approach, the Minister of the Interior intends to muzzle support for the Palestinian people by banning gatherings throughout France such as in Paris, Lille, Nantes, Grenoble, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Strasbourg. In the latter city she arrested and took into custody activists who were demonstrating peacefully. The AFPS wishes to express its full solidarity with the people arrested, it demands their immediate release and the lifting of all proceedings against them. By repressing any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people, the French authorities are creating serious frustrations and division within French society, in total contradiction with the President of the Republic’s call for unity.
Does the President of the Republic realize that by supporting the Israeli offensive he is making himself complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity? Does he realize the irreparable damage he is inflicting on France’s international reputation and the values it is supposed to uphold?
The AFPS solemnly calls on the French authorities to speak out and act for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, and the protection of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank. including East Jerusalem, and the resumption of a political process. It is time, it is high time, that France regains its place in the service of law and in the service of peace.
The AFPS National Office, October 14 at 12:00 p.m.
Photo: October 13, 2023, Gazan civilians flee to the south of the territory after receiving orders from the Israeli army to evacuate towns and camps in the north in anticipation of a ground invasion. Convoys heading south were bombed by Israeli airstrikes: 70 people were killed, 200 injured – Credit: Mohammed Zaanoun (Active Stills collective)