In front of the 17th chamber of the Paris court, Porte de Clichy, it is not difficult to distinguish the faces of Elias d’Imzalene’s supporters. These are the same people we meet during demonstrations for Palestine. Wearing their keffiyeh, they gather this Wednesday, October 23 in front of room 422. It is 1:30 p.m., the room is almost full. The police let us in. Founder of the Islam & Info site, the Islamist influencer, whose real name is El Yess Zareli, finds himself in court because of his statements during the September 8 demonstration in Paris. I filmed his call for an intifada in Paris and broadcast the video on X.
The LEA association (Fight for equality in anti-racism), a universalist and secular organization, filed a complaint for incitement to hatred and anti-Semitism. D’Imzalene was taken into police custody on September 22. The next day, the Paris court contacted me; I went there to submit all the videos and testify. I didn’t know then that a month later, I would receive so many threats from those around him.
Imzalene’s main defense angle focused on the peaceful nature of Emergency Palestine. Political advisor to this movement, he assured that no violence has been observed since the creation of the association, which has regularly called for demonstrations since October 7, 2023. This proves, according to him, the pacifism of his words, as well as than the non-warlike nature of the term “intifada”. However, several calls for hatred were heard during the demonstrations. On October 15, at Place de la République, Omar Alsoumi, leader of this association, called for “armed resistance of the Palestinian people”. The rally ended with an attack on a McDonald’s restaurant on rue du Temple, where several demonstrators attempted to burn the premises. On September 27, demonstrators chanted in Arabic “We beg you, Hassan Nasrallah, go even further.” That day, Urgence Palestine called for the release of Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese terrorist convicted of the murder of two diplomats, one American and the other Israeli, in Paris in 1982. On October 5, during a demonstration on the first anniversary of the Hamas massacre, Omar Alsoumi also declared: “They thought they had crushed our resistance, but even today, in Gaza, the men of the resistance and the children of this land face the army genocidal colonial force and continue to bring down, with their weapons, the tanks of the colonial army. We stand alongside this resistance.” Next door, a woman carried a sign reading “The Gaza Holocaust: Hitler was stopped in his madness? So stop Netanyahu. Israel, sadistic state.”
“We’re going to talk outside.”
The judge then broadcast two videos of the September 8 demonstration, citing my name, accompanied by my testimony in which I accuse Imzalene of creating Islamic chaos in France. He defended himself by presenting himself as an activist for peace and living together, affirming that some of his friends are Jewish and that he fights for the good of all, as a French citizen, focusing on the cause Palestinian and justice. I then encountered tense and hostile looks. Beside me, a young man asked me if d’Imzalene’s comments bothered me. Not wanting to answer, he said aggressively: “We’re going to talk outside.” During the break, I had to put up with insults (“asshole”, “bastard”, “we’ll find him”…). Back in the room, Imzalene’s lawyers and those of the civil parties cite my testimony. A man, regularly present during demonstrations for Palestine and known as Rima Hassan’s bodyguard, fights with the police who end up expelling him from the room. Imzalene’s lawyer then takes the floor to accuse me of belonging to the extreme right.
“It’s a genocide, and with the genocidaires, there are accomplices; their name is Biden; they are called Macron. The thief of the elections, we know the thieves who live at the Elysée. Are we ready to kick them out too? Are we ready to bring the intifada to Paris, to show them that the voice of liberation comes from us? To justify these comments made on September 8, d’Imzalène accused Léa’s lawyers of being ignorant on the subject, assuring that they had not done sufficient document work. According to the activist listed S, search engines like Google, as well as a site like Wikipedia, are Islamophobic because they only highlight the violent aspect of the word “intifada”. For him, it is a peaceful uprising, consistent with the values of the French Republic, and which can even involve democratic elections.
Evacuated by four police officers
D’Imzalene also defended himself by insisting that he was referring to “the stone war”, with Palestinian children throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank. These children have been presented in Arab media as heroes. But in reality, this term was used for the first time, to describe the popular Palestinian revolt, in a Hamas press release broadcast in Gaza on December 11, 1987. Contrary to what d’Imzalene asserts, the revolt had nothing peaceful: 1,000 Palestinians were killed by Hamas, accused of being “agents” of Israel, as well as 160 Israelis, soldiers and civilians. This first intifada represented, for Hamas, a military exercise allowing it to develop its weapons. It lasted until 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords. Although this agreement was the prerequisite for a Palestinian state, Hamas never accepted it, in particular because of the status of Jerusalem.
In 2000, Hamas launched the second intifada, with suicide bombings carried out to blow up restaurants and buses in Israel. Hamas also destroyed 50 IDF Merkava tanks. These actions were denied by Imzalene, who focused on the fact that a Palestinian child, Mohammed al-Durah, had been killed alongside his father, repeating that the intifada was only an uprising peaceful. This is how he justified his tribute, during the October 8 demonstration, to those who are overthrowing the Merkavas today, insisting on the fact that he was addressing Palestinian children who are resisting Israeli colonization. However, the only ones who do it today are the brigades of Izz al-Din al-Qassam, the armed wing of Hamas.
Imzalene’s lawyer took the stand at the end of the trial. Like his client, he focused on the linguistic aspect of the intifada. He criticized the lawyers of the civil parties for being ignorant of the Arabic language, and also accused me of giving a religious meaning to this word. Leaving the trial at 10 p.m., Imzalene’s supporters waved to me: “We’re waiting for you outside.” A feeling of great solitude invaded me, that of being an individual alone facing dozens of activists ready to settle scores with a traitor and apostate. The police perceive the violent atmosphere. After waiting fifteen minutes for the supporters of Imzalène’s “peace activist” to leave, four police officers took me out through another door, and accompanied me to the metro. No doubt a foretaste of the pacifist and democratic intifada praised by Elias d’Imzalene…
* 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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