French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is initiating a process to dissolve, for reasons of public order, the Urgence Palestine group, which has organized several anti-Israel demonstrations and has called for a boycott of the Jewish state, the minister announced on Wednesday.
He is also proceeding with the dissolution of an ultra-right group called Lyon Populaire.
Retailleau, speaking on the CNews/Europe 1 channel, stressed the need to “hit the Islamists” with regard to Urgence Palestine. “Islamism is an ideology that tries to exploit a religion. There is a disfigurement of faith,” he said.
“We must not disfigure the just cause of the Palestinians,” he continued, insisting that “many of our fellow Muslims profess a faith that is perfectly compatible with the values of the Republic.”
Urgence Palestine, created in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the Israeli offensive against the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, claims to bring together “citizens, associations, trade unions and political organizations and movements mobilized for the self-determination of the Palestinian people.” The group regularly organizes demonstrations in several cities, some of which have been banned by the authorities because of antisemitism and calls for violence.
The group supports the “resistance of the Palestinian people” and, more broadly, advocates for the “struggle against colonial oppression and imperialist wars.”
It claims that it wants to put an end to the “genocide” of Gazans since the Oct. 7 attack and demands a boycott and sanctions against Israel, calling into question “the French government’s complicity in Israeli crimes.’’
