the controversy in 5 acts – L’Express

And this time, it is David Guiraud who is under fire from critics. Not without reason, the rebellious MP from the North having blurted out during an event organized in Tunis: “The baby in the oven was, in fact, made by Israel.” And to continue with confidence: “The disemboweled mother was done, it’s true, by Israel.” Return to a controversy in five acts.

Friday November 10, David Guiraud flies towards Tunisia. Accompanied by the activist and former candidate of La France insoumise in the 2017 legislative elections Taha Bouhafs, and the pro-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan, the rebellious MP is invited to an event entitled “Can we still defend the Palestinians in France?”.

For nearly an hour and a half, the discussions revolved around “the horrors” and “the lies committed by the Israeli state for years”, also including “the unconditional support of the presidential party for the State of Israel”. Without forgetting, of course, a point on the “racist and Islamophobic speeches” which run “over and over” in the French media.

And while criticism of Sunday’s march against anti-Semitism is rife, David Guiraud strays by launching into a parallel that is disconcerting to say the least: a comparison between the Israel-Hamas conflict and the massacres of Sabra and Chatila in 1982, affirming that “the baby in the oven was indeed made by Israel, and the disembowelled mother was made, it’s true, by Israel.”

L’Insoumis refers to one of the darkest episodes in the recent history of the Middle East, during which Lebanese Christian phalanxes methodically murdered thousands of Palestinians in these two camps in the western part of Beirut. We are now in mid-September 1982, and the Land of Cedar is in the middle of a civil war during which these militias have allied themselves with the Israeli army. Since then, the Israeli state has regularly been singled out for not having prevented these massacres.

But still. Comparison is not valid. And although spoken 2,000 kilometers from Paris, David Guiraud’s words quickly had an echo in France. Especially since this clumsy reference to the massacres committed in 1982 is added to comments that are, to say the least, ambiguous on the rise of anti-Semitism in France. On the subject of anti-Semitic tags discovered on the facades of buildings, David Guiraud quips: “We were told, proof of the rise in anti-Semitism, that’s it.”

Enough to arouse the indignation of a large part of the political class and many actors in civil society. One of the first to step up to the plate is the resident of Crif, whose relations with La France insoumise continue to deteriorate. “LFI MP David Guiraud proves that it is possible to engage in revisionism barely a month after an event filmed and broadcast live on social networks!”, shouts Yonathan Arfi from his X account (formerly Twitter).

On the sidelines of a trip to her stronghold of Pas-de-Calais, Marine Le Pen denounces comments that “shock everyone”. And to tackle: “There is a competition it seems at La France insoumise on who will be the most abject. For the moment, he has just climbed onto the first step, but he could be dethroned, knowing him, by another of his colleagues.”

Same story with the Republicans (LR). “Rebellious France covers itself with a little more shame and dishonor every day. History will remember that French deputies took the side of the Hamas terrorists,” said the head of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, on X.

But while a mea culpa would have been enough to ease the tension, the Insoumis persists and signs on his social networks. The day after the conference, he wrote from his X account: “I stand by my assertions. The Israeli state fabricates so many lies to justify the worst crimes.” Before outbidding: “These are the factual elements that I cited during my intervention”. And to challenge “anyone of [le] contradict”.

It was only after a series of untimely tweets that David Guiraud ended up trying to explain himself in a thread that was, to say the least, verbose. “Let me be clear, I never doubted the massacre, nor the atrocity of the acts committed against civilians.” According to him, he was only discussing “the lies of the Israeli state throughout history until today” and “the degree of disinformation it brings into the public debate.”

But the words have been spoken, and the damage is done. This Sunday, November 12, Renaissance MP Violette Spillebout announced in The voice of the North having contacted the public prosecutor following the remarks made by David Guiraud during the conference in which he participated in Tunis.

His related colleague LR Meyer Habib, for his part, indicated that a denunciation would be made “to the Paris prosecutor under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure” against him “for advocating terrorism and inciting racial hatred.

On the side of La France insoumise, we are not rushing to come to the rescue of the deputy from the North. Questioned by BFM TV this Sunday about the controversy, the boss of LFI, Manuel Bompard said he did not understand “why [il sanctionnerait] a person who recalled a historical context in which the horrors of October 7 took place”. This, despite the “factual error” made by his deputy.

Solicited by numerous personalities, first and foremost the president of Crif Yonathan Arfi who calls for sanctions to be taken in the National Assembly “for these vile and lying remarks”, the president of the lower house recalled that she was not able to take sanctions “for acts having been committed outside the confines of the National Assembly”. And to add that “the lifting of parliamentary immunity occurs exclusively at the request of justice”.

If the latter takes coercive measures against David Guiraud, by placing him in police custody, or by ordering his indictment for example, a request for lifting of parliamentary immunity will be made. A delegation from the Palais Bourbon chaired by an opposition deputy will thus have to make a decision, and deliver an opinion which will be transmitted to the office of the National Assembly, the only body competent to rule on whether or not to agree to the lifting of the parliamentary immunity.

Faced with the collective indignation caused by David Guiraud’s comments, Yaël Braun-Pivet was reassuring in the hypothesis of the procedure being triggered. “Since I have been president of the National Assembly, we have had a few, which were unanimously accepted by the office,” she declared this Monday on CNews. Without failing to recall that the deputies all have “a mandate” which “requires a requirement of truth, seriousness, responsibility”.