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"It's not over yet," French MP Meir Habib commented on the condemnation of the head of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Eric Cochrall, for the crimes of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, which provoked the anger of parliamentarians who demanded his punishment.

Habib is a French-Israeli MP who knows Israel's voice inside France, a label given to him by the French media because of his close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He is a controversial figure in France, making headlines this week after boycotting Finance Committee Chairman Eric Cockeral, a member of parliament for the "proud France" movement, when he denounced the crimes of the Israeli occupation and the killing of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

After that, 39 deputies from "proud France" submitted a list to the Speaker of Parliament, Yael Bife, in order to initiate proceedings to punish Habib, on charges of glorifying and justifying war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, but Bivfe refused to lift the immunity of the MP.

The speaker of parliament justified her refusal to take punitive measures against Habib by saying, "The list submitted by MPs from proud France and the Left Alliance to lift the immunity of the MP is illegal, because the only one who can initiate a lawsuit to lift the immunity is the Attorney General."

On the other hand, Francesca Pasquini, a member of parliament for "proud France", commented on her account on the X platform, with a tweet in which she wrote, "The speaker of parliament was not accurate during her response to the list, and did not condemn the shameful and unacceptable statements of Meir Habib."

A few days ago, the speaker of parliament imposed sanctions on deputies from "proud France" who protested against the new immigration law by raising banners, and the MP for the same party, Anthony Liamon, was punished for describing the deputies of the National Rally party as Nazis.

Shocking double standards

The refusal of the Speaker of Parliament to punish the MP received wide interaction monitoring the networks program (25/12/2023) in part, including what journalist Niels Wilk wrote, "Her argument contradicts the punishment taken against MP Thomas Port thanks to a procedural ploy that could have been applied to Habib. Double standards are shocking."

Thomas Porte tweeted: "The unconditional supporters of Israeli war criminals protect each other, and here a member of parliament can quietly justify war crimes. What a shame."

Ezzedine Taibi, mayor of Stan, said: "The speaker of parliament is rushing to rescue soldier Habib. But how long will this extremist get away with it? "Not finished yet!": Meir survives lifting of parliamentary immunity after justifying war crimes."

"This man we pay our money to speak on behalf of the Zionists under the dome of parliament, what a real shame, he did not open his mouth to talk about Israeli atrocities but he does not hesitate to accuse his colleagues of terrorism," Rina wrote.

The MP responded to calls for sanctions by saying, "I insist on saying, 'It's not over! Israel will eliminate Hamas, and I condemn the blatant manipulation by these MPs, their move is an attempt to cover up their glorification of terrorism and their denial of anti-Semitism."

Source : Al Jazeera