It is a long and total minute of silence that the Franco-Palestinian jurist Rima Hassan reigns, Saturday March 16, in a hall of the Villepinte exhibition center (Seine-Saint-Denis) where La France insoumise (LFI) is holding its first meeting for the European elections. “The Palestinians demand one thing, to have what you all have, an identity card and a nationality”launches to the room the one who appears in seventh position on the movement’s list for the June 9 ballot.
If this position is now assumed as a ” pride “ by the “rebellious” executives, the pro-Palestinian coloring given to the list was not obvious at the start. In December 2023, when the name of Rima Hassan circulated internally after her meeting with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the hypothesis of seeing her candidate under the colors of LFI already seemed compromised. According to the rumor circulating, coordinator Manuel Bompard thinks that the movement has already demonstrated its commitment to Palestine.
It’s been three months since the leadership faces strong criticism from its political adversaries for refusing to qualify Hamas as a “terrorist” group, following its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. From its left-wing partners too, since the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (Nupes) has found a reason, on this point, to shatter.
And then we hear then, Rima Hassan, figure of Palestinian rights, did not defend the two-state solution, a blocking point at the time. A few days before the finalization of the list, which will be revealed on March 6 and which is led by Manon Aubry, the latter realizes that the hypothesis is in reality far from being buried.
But it is too late, the arrival has already been recorded. In any case, this choice reinforces LFI’s desire to position itself as the spearhead of the defense of the Palestinians, alongside the associations. And all the more so since the French Communist Party (PCF), led by Fabien Roussel, is no longer as assiduously at their side as it used to be.
In the PCF, a “desire for demarcation”
“Those who are there all the time are LFI. They are numerous, and constantly, invested”, notes Anne Tuaillon, president of the France-Palestine Solidarité Association, long close to the PCF. During the last demonstration at the call of the National Collective for a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis, on March 9, the “rebels”, signatories of the call, were in the lead. The PCF, a non-signatory, found itself at the end of the procession.
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