The Council of State on Friday suspended the execution of the decrees dissolving the “Comité Action Palestine” and the “Collectif Palestine Vaincra” published in March by the Ministry of the Interior, which accused these associations of “incitement to hatred, discrimination, violence”.
Regarding the “Palestine Action Committee”, the dissolution measure “carries a serious and manifestly illegal attack on freedom of association and freedom of expression”, writes in its decision the Council of State, seized in summary proceedings by the association.
The latter had in particular been criticized by the authorities for “reporting on the activity of Palestinian terrorist organizations, in particular Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine and Hezbollah”. According to the highest administrative court, “the positions taken by the association’s publications (…) cannot (…) be regarded as provoking discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people”. Nor can they be “qualified as acts with a view to provoking acts of terrorism”, at this stage of the investigation, according to the magistrates.
Call for boycott
“This is a precious victory for the rule of law, which sanctions the political instrumentalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the Ministry of the Interior”, reacted to AFP Vincent Brengarth, the lawyer of the “Palestine Action Committee”.
Concerning the “Collectif Palestine Vaincra”, the Ministry of the Interior accused it of “cultivating the feeling of oppression of Muslim peoples (…) with the aim of spreading the idea of Islamophobia on a national scale. international community, under the guise of defending the Palestinian cause”.
The ministry also accused him of calling for “discrimination and hatred towards Israel and Israelis”, in particular through boycott campaigns.
The call for a boycott “translates the expression of a dissenting opinion and cannot by itself (..) be regarded as a provocation or a contribution to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people “, underlines the decision of the Council of State.
First victory
“This is a first victory (…) pending the judgment of the appeal for annulment” rejoiced on its site the “Collectif Palestine Vaincra”: “This decision is a real snub against the power and undermines the propaganda of the Zionist extreme right and its amalgams between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism”.
Thus, the State will have to pay 3,000 euros to each of the two associations.