Élie Semoun was insulted and threatened with death for having taken a clear stance on Sciences Po Paris students mobilized against the Israeli “military operation” in Gaza. He filed a complaint.
At the end of April on Instagram, the 60-year-old French comedian virulently attacked the students of Sciences Po Paris. “Bands of uneducated morons who promote Hamas which refuses the ceasefire, who steal money intended for the Palestinians, who hold them hostage, etc., etc. When they are in France, we will send them to receive them,” he said.
The following? “Immediately after my post, I received death threats, a flood of hatred and insults calling me in particular – since it is the rule today – a dirty Zionist,” he explains to “Parisien “.
Élie Semoun regrets the words of “uneducated morons”. “But I am so angry and powerless in the face of this anti-Semitic wave, in the face of all this ignorance… They should educate themselves a little before talking about genocide, they should study the history of the Middle East,” he pleads in the French daily.
The actor says he is “shocked”, “traumatized” or even “disgusted” by the massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, then by the “uninhibited, generalized anti-Semitism” which followed, according to him.
He says: “It’s unbearable to see these howling packs get agitated only when it concerns Israel and the Jews.” And to comment, on October 7: “The attack “brutally returned me to my Jewish identity. Today I feel that she has been flouted, insulted, threatened,” he comments.
“Le Parisien”, finally, asked the Frenchman to take a position on “the merciless war waged by Israel in Gaza”. “Israel is not the country some demonize. It is a beautiful, democratic country, where Jews and Arabs live together, exchange on an economic and cultural level… The Hamas terrorists have succeeded: Israel has lost the battle of opinion,” replied Élie Semoun.
