(Paris) Two complaints were filed in Paris against French leaders of pro-Israel associations for “complicity in genocide”, accused in particular of having prevented humanitarian aid from being delivered to Gaza, AFP learned on Wednesday with the complainant associations.
Posted at 12:10 p.m.
Updated at 2:58 p.m.
One was filed Tuesday by the French Jewish Union for Peace (UFJP) and “a Franco-Palestinian victim.”
In this complaint, also revealed by the daily The Worldthe plaintiffs, supported by the NGO Urgence Palestine, denounce “the organization, participation and call to participate in concrete actions blocking humanitarian aid to the occupied territory of Gaza, in particular by physically preventing the passage of trucks through border crossings controlled by the Israeli army.
“This deliberate submission of the Gazan population to conditions of existence likely to bring about its destruction, and more particularly the use of famine, characterizes, both according to international law and according to French law, the crime of genocide,” support the plaintiffs in a press release.
“If the legal qualification of genocide may be shocking, it is here the most appropriate given the facts committed,” their lawyers, Damia Taharraoui and Marion Lafouge, commented to AFP.
Their complaint with civil party for complicity in genocide and incitement to the commission of genocide targets figures from “Israel is forever” and “Tzav-9”, pro-Israel associations, presented as having French nationality.
“It’s been 14 months since my family suffered the genocide in Gaza. I stopped counting at the fiftieth person murdered there,” the Franco-Palestinian complainant, who refuses to testify under her real name for fear of consequences for her loved ones remaining in Gaza, told AFP.
“I see my loved ones passing away. Now I have to ask them: “Have you eaten today?” ”, declared this woman whose 70-year-old father, according to her, “lost 24 kilos” due to lack of food and is now “50 all wet for 1m80”.
His nephews, “thin, tired”, told him on Monday to “eat only bread with zaatar [des épices, NDLR] twice a day” and being “hungry”, she recounts again, not hiding her anger at “Israel is forever” and Tzav, two associations according to her “accomplices and active actors in the massacre”.
A second complaint with the constitution of a civil party, consulted by AFP, was filed on Wednesday by the association Lawyers for Justice in the Middle East and the Coordination of Appeals for a Just Peace in the Middle East (CAPJPO)-Europalestine, for “complicity in genocide”.
Relying in particular on photos, videos and public speeches, they also accuse officials of “Israel is Forever” of having blocked humanitarian vehicles.
“The offense of complicity in genocide appears to be the most accurate penal expression to describe the facts […]. We must now hope that the French courts will find the courage to investigate under this qualification,” the lawyers for the associations, Matteo Bonaglia and Ala Adas, commented to AFP.
On January 26, the International Court of Justice asked Israel to do its utmost to prevent any act of genocide during its military operations.
Israel strongly contests these accusations, asserts its “right to defend its population” and accuses the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas of using civilians as “human shields”.
In September, the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) closed a complaint from associations denouncing torture attributed to a Franco-Israeli on men presented as Palestinian prisoners.
On November 21, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the armed wing of Hamas Mohammed Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel announced its intention to appeal on Wednesday. In the meantime, Paris affirmed that Mr. Netanyahu benefited from “immunity” which must “be taken into consideration” in France.
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