NWe cannot bear the unbearable. The total destruction of Gaza is unbearable. The daily bombings of Lebanon are unbearable. The permanent expansion of colonization in the West Bank is unbearable. The half-hidden, half-public plans for the mass expulsion of Palestinians are unbearable. This is what the arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court issued on November 21 against Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant reminds us; this mandate which has nothing “anti-Semitic”contrary to what the Israeli Prime Minister claims, and which Israel could have avoided by launching a serious investigation into the crimes committed in Gaza.
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We mourned with the Israelis on October 7, 2023, the most abominable pogrom since the Shoah. We have always thought and said that Hamas was a terrorist organization and that Israel had the right to defend itself, to fight it and to eliminate its leaders. We are deeply attached to the existence of Israel and we see clearly to what extent Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian theocracy which pilots them aim for its destruction.
How can we not see, however, that the Israeli response violates the laws of war and tramples on international law? How can we not see that Benyamin Netanyahu has made the unlimited continuation or end of this war the horizon of his political survival? How can we not see the piling up of corpses in Gaza and the methodical annihilation of any possibility of a Palestinian state with colonization in the West Bank?
Criminals
How can we not see that, after having secretly supported Hamas for years – by facilitating its financing by Qatar and by favoring its control over Gaza out of hostility towards the Palestinian Authority and rejection of any solution two states -, Benjamin Netanyahu today espouses the views of the worst extremists in his government, who dream of an Israel going from the sea to the river? How can we not see that these extremists are fanatical settlers who are colonizing the Israeli state from within and undermining the very foundations of Israeli democracy?
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The trauma of October 7 runs deep in Israel. Very deep. Many people in Europe – and within part of the French left – have refused to appreciate this trauma, rejecting any real empathy for the Israeli victims, the murdered civilians, the raped women, the kidnapped hostages and still detained… This indifference tinged with anti-Semitism was and remains repugnant.
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