Manuel Bompard believes that the Yadan law turns all criticism of the Israeli government into anti

The National Assembly must examine the Yadan law on Thursday, April 16, which aims to “fight against renewed forms of anti-Semitism”. LFI elected officials strongly oppose this text.

On the eve of the examination of the Yadan bill by the National Assembly, the coordinator of La France insoumise, Manuel Bompard, deemed it “dangerous” as it “considers any criticism of the Israeli government as anti-Semitism”. This bill, introduced by Macronist deputy Caroline Yadan, aims to “fight against renewed forms of anti-Semitism” in response to the sharp rise in this phenomenon since October 7, 2023. Specifically, this law will create an offense punishing calls for the destruction or denial of a state.

LFI elected officials strongly oppose this text which, according to Manuel Bompard, “claims to fight against anti-Semitism” but “instrumentalizes this fight to suppress criticism of the Israeli government’s policy, colonization, and genocide in Gaza,” he denounced on Public Sénat on Wednesday, April 15. “If there was a law to combat anti-Semitism, of course, I would vote for it,” he asserted.

In this law, there are articles that extend what is called the offense of apology for terrorism, widely used to punish statements that are not promoting terrorism,” he added. Manuel Bompard also believed that the rationale behind the Yadan law was “dangerous” because “all Jews in France are not responsible for the policy of the Israeli government.”

“If you say you are in favor of a one-state solution where people living in the Israeli state and the Palestinian people would live in a single state, do you think this position should be criminalized by the justice system? We have the right to defend it, yet it would challenge the borders of Israel today,” he insisted.

According to the rebellious elected official, the existing legislative arsenal already suppresses anti-Semitism. “What is lacking are the means,” he pointed out, stating that the government should deploy “a plan to fight against anti-Semitism.”