French left-wing party probed for glorifying ‘terror’ by supporting Hamas

A French leftist party, the New Anti-Capitalist Party, is being investigated for glorifying “terror” over comments following the deadly and devastating Hamas invasion of Israel, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday.

Darmanin told a TV news show that prosecutors referred the case to police after the far-left NPA affirmed “its support for the Palestinians and the means of struggle they have chosen to resist.” The party’s statement concluded with the word “intifada,” which means uprising.

The NPA said the Israeli strategy, which it said was known as the “lawnmower,” consisted “of physically and regularly eliminating new generations of activists and opponents of the occupation, in an endlessly repeating cycle.”

“This time, the offensive is on the side of the resistance,” it said.

Darmanin said he had made “several reports” to the courts about similar incidents.

The previous day, following a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community in France and the security services, he had warned that he reserved the right to use the law “to initiate dissolution proceedings” against any organization guilty of glorifying terrorism.

“We have heard from groups, associations and sometimes political parties, absolutely despicable statements calling for hatred, the intifada and the glorification of terrorism,” he said without giving specific examples.

Asked on Tuesday whether another leftist political party, France Unbowed, was antisemitic, Darmanin said “it has not shown the opposite.”