Since the demonstration of September 8, organized by several pro-Palestinian associations, a controversy has circulated about the appeal of Elias d’Imzalene, placed in police custody on Tuesday September 24 for provoking hatred and inciting crimes in reason for his call to “lead the intifada”. The neo-Salafist activist will be tried before the Paris criminal court on October 23. Other, even more serious statements were made during this demonstration.
That day, surrounded by Rima Hassan and Thomas Portes, two LFI parliamentarians, Elias d’Imzalène arrived at the demonstration, Place de la République in Paris. At the podium, the declarations follow one another. Omar Alsoumi, figure of the Urgence Palestine collective and an association affiliated with the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), an organization classified as terrorist by the European Union, gives the floor. After several speeches, slogans in French, such as “Israel assassin, Macron accomplice”, and in Arabic, such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine is Arab”, – and not “will be free” – are chanted. This not only means the destruction of Israel, but also the exclusion of other non-Arab ethnicities from this region.
Next comes Ramy Shaath, Palestinian-Egyptian activist and member of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement. Between 2019 and 2022, he was imprisoned in Egypt, accused of financing terrorist acts and leading “unrest against the state”. He then took refuge in France. It states in Arabic: “Since 1967, the Zionist movement has been trying to Judaize the West Bank. They took advantage of the two-state solution to increase the number of settlers to 700,000. But despite this, in November 2021, the Zionists surrendered considers that the number of Arab Palestinians is equal to that of Jews.” Omar Alsoumi translates Shaath’s speech into French for the audience, replacing the word “Jews” with “Israelis.” Shaath continued: “In recent weeks, they have intensified this genocide in the West Bank by attacking refugee camps surviving from the 1948 Nakba to carry out the same genocide there as in Gaza. The Zionists have forgotten that we will not leave our land once second time; we will stick to our weapons against the settlers I tell them from here: you will not have any hostages, the war will never stop in the north of Israel, and the Red Sea will not open so much. that the genocide in Gaza will not end.” Comments placing themselves on the side of Hamas.
An activist takes the podium and confirms that “the genocide continues against all Palestinians.” She then calls for the return of the Palestinians “from the river to the sea.” It is not easy to distinguish this woman’s face among the hundreds of demonstrators and the raised Palestinian flags. We can see banners calling for the release of Georges Abdallah. This Lebanese terrorist was convicted of the murder of two diplomats, one American and the other Israeli, in Paris in 1982. He was arrested by French authorities and sentenced to life imprisonment. One of these banners is held by the LFI deputy, Manuel Bompard, where it is written in Arabic: “Freedom for Georges Abdallah.”
Overturning Merkavas
The event ends with the speech of Elias d’Imzalene. He begins by calling for resistance “from Paris to Gaza.” “Are we also the resistance? The men of Gaza who fight for their women and children to live? It’s a genocide, and with the genocidaires, there are accomplices; their names are Biden; they are called Macron. The thief of the elections, we know the thieves who live at the Elysée. Are we ready to fire them too? ‘Intifada in Paris? In the suburbs, in our neighborhoods.
I am facing the podium. Around me, people of different ages and social classes, including students, activists and members of BBG (White Coats for Gaza), a collective of caregivers in solidarity with the Palestinian population. They applaud every word spoken by d’Imzalene. If his call for the Intifada, which means “uprising” in French, had been made in another context, it could have been considered peaceful resistance.
However, in the speech of this activist presenting himself as a neo-Salafist, it is essential to continue his statement to better understand the meaning of this word in his words: “The war will continue, but the resistance will also continue, because They believed that with time, they would silence the resistance. But you see it like me on all social networks, people capable of overthrowing Merkavas. The Merkava, war chariot in the Hebrew Bible, is very popular in the Middle East as a symbol of the Israeli army. Since October 7, Hamas’ pride has been to destroy these carts with their best-known shells, “Al-Yassine”, named in the name of the founder of Hamas in 1987: “sheikh” Ahmed Yassine, killed in 2004 by the Mossad .
“Al-Quds” rather than Jerusalem
D’Imzalene leaves no doubt about his call for armed Islamic “resistance” by establishing the link between the Intifada and Al-Yassine. He ends his speech with: “So, we tell the Minister of Interior that we will continue, whether they want it or not. And soon, Jerusalem will be liberated and we will be able to pray at Masjid Al-Aqsa, and Jerusalem will become the capital of all revolutionaries.”
Omar Alsoumi repeats Imzalene’s last sentence, replacing “Jerusalem” with “Al-Quds” so that his speech is consistent with that of the Islamists in the Middle East. For them, this city, Al-Quds, which means “sacred” in French, should not be called by any other name. In 2020, Hamas published an appeal on the 27th anniversary of the Oslo Accord, titled “Al-Quds is the eternal capital of Palestine”. This city is not only the compass of Hamas, but of all terrorist movements: Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Daesh. His liberation of the Jews, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is their most important mission. This is why the massacre of October 7 was named by Hamas: “The Flood of Al-Aqsa”.
To understand the danger of this demonstration, we cannot separate Shaath’s declaration from that of Imzalene, nor from Alsoumi’s words. It’s a single speech, for a single objective: to establish a separatist, identity-based and hateful atmosphere, to create chaos, while manipulating young people with a fantasized “resistance”.
* Writer and poet born in Damascus, Omar Youssef Souleimane participated in demonstrations against the regime of Bashar el-Assad, but, hunted by the secret services, had to flee Syria in 2012. Refugee in France, he published with Flammarion The Little Terrorist, The Last Syrian, A room in exile, and recently Being French.
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