Last weekend, many posters appeared in the streets of Lyon and Paris, France, with a clear message: “The torture of children by the Israeli occupation” illustrated by a young Palestinian surrounded by Israeli soldiers. This was enough to provoke strong reactions from supporters of Israeli apartheid.
Pascal Blache, mayor of the 6th arrondissement of Lyon, reacted on social networks by stating, “Wild displays of hateful, anti-Semitic propaganda on our land are intolerable. I strongly condemn this method of action.” On Twitter, many people responded to denounce the shameful association of criticism of Israeli policy, namely the torture of minors, with anti-Semitism.
These remarks were immediately taken up by the news site Lyon Mag, which referred to “anti-Israel messages […] that [have] greatly shocked the Jewish community.” This attempt to associate the Jewish community with Israeli policy is deeply reactionary. Criticism of Israeli policy, and of the Zionist project that led to the creation of Israel, has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. This received a strong response from Internet users, as documented at the CAPJPO-Europalestine website.
A large spectrum of supporters of Israeli apartheid, from the fascists of the LDJ – Ligue de Défense Juive to the Union des Etudiants Juifs de France – UEJF and representatives of the CRIF, to cry out in scandal alongside the extreme right-wing newspaper Valeurs actuelles.
All these declarations in support of a colonial and racist state will not make us forget the reality denounced by these posters. Today, 170 children are detained by the Israeli occupation as documented by the human rights organization Addameer in its latest report. In the interrogation centers, they are subjected to physical and psychological torture: tied up in uncomfortable positions without being able to sleep, sometimes beaten, threatened with abuse, etc. They are usually asked to confess to throwing stones at tanks or bulldozers that are demolishing their homes, to denounce other children, to become “informers”, and to sign documents in Hebrew (a language they do not understand). These arrests, imprisonments and abuses have serious consequences on the development of the children. Here is a video that provides more information:
Source: Collectif Palestine Vaincra Translation: Samidoun
