Placed under the sign of the fight against anti-Semitism by the Élysée, the national tribute to the 42 Franco-Israeli victims of the Hamas attack of October 7, scheduled for Wednesday February 7, perfectly illustrates a political shift at work for at least two years: the banning of La France insoumise (LFI) from the “republican arc” in place of the National Rally (RN).

Five families of victims wrote to Emmanuel Macron at the end of January to ask him to ban the presence of LFI elected officials at the national tribute. They accuse the political party of "lack of respect, relativism and negationism" since the attack which left 1,140 dead in Israel and believe that it bears "a very heavy responsibility for the explosion of Judeophobia" in France – acts of anti-Semitism have jumped in France since October 7, reaching a total of 1,646 acts recorded in 2023, compared to 436 in 2022.

Also read Anti-Semitic acts jumped by 1,000% in France after the October 7 attack in Israel

Insoumise France thus continues to pay for its controversial positions, including within the left, on the attacks of October 7. LFI leaders distinguished themselves by refusing to qualify Hamas as a “terrorist” group, preferring to speak of “war crimes” to describe the numerous massacres of civilians. The desire of the rebels to postpone the attack of October 7 in the context of a colonial conflict lasting several decades, at a time when part of the political class displayed "unconditional" support for Israel, had earned LFI accusations of apology for terrorism and anti-Semitism. The rebels had also refused to take part in the march against anti-Semitism on November 12 on the grounds that they refused to participate in a demonstration alongside the National Rally. 

The party leaders, however, announced their desire to participate in the national tribute to the Invalides. The deputy and coordinator of the movement, Manuel Bompard, judged, Sunday February 4 on BFMTV, "normal for the nation to pay tribute to the victims", saying "share" the "pain" and the "grief" of the families, without "will to mix a national tribute with a political moment".

It is normal for France to pay tribute to the 42 French victims of Hamas.



We share their pain and their sorrow and we wish to pay tribute to them.



We will not transform a moment of contemplation into a moment of political controversy and we hope that it… pic.twitter.com/VWdz3Kd5dv

— Manuel Bompard (@mbompard) February 4, 2024

Several political leaders, however, did not hesitate to take up the demands expressed by these victims' families, once again pushing LFI outside the famous "republican arc" often invoked by Emmanuel Macron.

"Does rebellious France have only indecency and insolence as its sole competence? Yes, and yes again. They spend their time creating provocation without solution and media buzz to serve only one thing: their ego,” lambasted government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot on Sunday, February 4, on LCI.

“Decency would dictate that they are not there. Legally, we cannot prevent them from being there, but their conscience could perhaps dictate that they not be there and quite simply respect the wishes of the families,” said for her part the Minister for Equality between Women and Men and the Fight against Discrimination, Aurore Bergé, on January 31, on LCI.

💬 "41 French people were murdered by Islamist terrorists on October 7 in Israel.



Let LFI question its conscience: the families do not want their presence. Decency should lead them to renounce it and respect the mourning of the families.



📺 @LCI pic.twitter.com/2oVFHDlU8q

— Aurore Bergé (@auroreberge) January 31, 2024

The president of the Republicans of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, also attacked LFI. "What a shame! Morally, they would do well not to come, out of respect for the victims and out of respect for the families", he was indignant, also accusing the representatives of LFI of having "always, through their actions , favored the rise of anti-Semitism in France".

“A history of more or less ambiguous declarations”

For historian Robert Hirsch, author of the book “The Left and the Jews” (Le bord de l'eau, 2022), La France insoumise is not an anti-Semitic party, but cultivates ambiguity. "A part of the left, of which LFI is a part, has tended in recent years to downplay the problem of anti-Semitism in France. Added to this is a lack of understanding at LFI of the importance of the October 7 attack for the Jews, which represents the largest massacre of Jews since the Second World War. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's reaction lacked compassion for the Israeli victims. It also came on top of a history of more or less ambiguous statements which deepen the distance between part of the Jewish community and LFI."

Thus, in July 2020, on BFMTV, to the question: "Should the police be like Jesus on the cross who does not fight back?", Jean-Luc Mélenchon responded by mentioning the stereotype of the Jewish people committing suicide: "I don't know if Jesus was on the cross, but I know that, apparently, it was his own countrymen who put him there."

Also read: Yaël Braun-Pivet in Israel with LR's "hawks", a trip that sows trouble

More recently, on October 22, after a rally in Paris in support of the Palestinian people while at the same time, the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, made a trip to Israel, Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on : "Here is France. Meanwhile, Madame Braun-Pivet is camped in Tel Aviv to encourage the massacre. Not in the name of the French people!"

This is France. Meanwhile Madame Braun-Pivet camps in Tel Aviv to encourage the massacre. Not in the name of the French people! pic.twitter.com/ruxMujq14k

— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) October 22, 2023

A message accused of conveying the stereotype of anti-France or the “foreign party”. "The verb 'camp' is a term which was used classically, including in the 1930s, by a whole anti-Jewish literature which accused Jews of 'camping' in the countries where they settled without much regard for the country in question", political scientist and specialist on the far right Jean-Yves Camus then explained to AFP.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the rebellious leaders regularly contest the accusations of anti-Semitism of which they are the target and denounce a “word police”. “We find ourselves in a situation where we have to defend ourselves from what we are not, and it is not easy. However, we just have to listen to us,” replied Mathilde Panot, on 13 January, at Mediapart. When we were kicked out of the march for Mireille Knoll in 2018, Jean-Luc Mélenchon said: 'That every Jew knows that he is under the protection of the national community, that is what is important'."

“A political maneuver which consists of demonizing LFI”

If no member of LFI has ever been convicted by the courts for anti-Semitism, unlike members of the National Rally, or if the words used do not necessarily refer to anti-Semitism explicitly, the repetition of this type of declaration leaving room for doubt allows the opponents of the rebels to take political advantage of it.

“Obviously, regarding the presence of LFI at the national tribute, there is a political maneuver which consists of demonizing LFI”, judges the historian Robert Hirsch, who mirrors the anti-LFI positions of the last days with the leniency that the National Rally benefited from during its participation in the march against anti-Semitism on November 12.

Read alsoBy marching against anti-Semitism, Marine Le Pen takes another step towards its normalization

At the time, few voices, outside of left-wing parties, were raised to denounce the presence of the RN, a historically anti-Semitic party, at this march. Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe even declared that he was not “sorting out the goodwill who want to fight against anti-Semitism”.

LFI's own wanderings coupled with the demonization strategy of which it is the target have an impact on public opinion. Insoumise France is now considered more harmful to democracy than the National Rally. A

political shift illustrated by the “French Fractures” survey, published in October 2023 by Ipsos / Sopra Steria for Le Monde, the Jean Jaurès Foundation, Cevipof and the Montaigne Institute: 57% of French people questioned judged the party La France insoumise dangerous for democracy, compared to 52% for the National Rally.

📹 We are witnessing the anti-Zionist and almost anti-Semitic coming out of France Insoumise.



Jean-Luc Mélenchon's tweets are connoted and activate all the codes of crass anti-Semitism. #TheGrandJury pic.twitter.com/iEzOcatje6

— Sébastien Chenu (@sebchenu) November 5, 2023

Result: now members of the RN allow themselves to accuse LFI of anti-Semitism. Insoumise France “activates all the codes of the crassest anti-Semitism,” said MP Sébastien Chenu on November 5 on RTL. The same day, his colleague and spokesperson for the RN, Laurent Jacobelli, declared on franceinfo: "Today there are elected representatives of the Republic who almost no longer hide their anti-Semitism, I am talking about La France insoumise."

“There is a form of legitimization of the RN which takes place when, at the same time, we cast opprobrium on LFI”, analyzes Robert Hirsch, regretting “an extremely dangerous shift which opens the way to the RN for 2027”.

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