French PM says government intends to criminalize calls for any country’s destruction

By AFP and ToI Staff 20 February 2026, 11:53 am

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France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu deivers a speech during the annual dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF - Conseil Representatif des Institutions juives de France) at the Louvre Carrousel in Paris on February 19, 2026. (GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

French Prime Minister Sebastien Cornu tells a Jewish conference in Paris that his government intends to criminalize calls for any country’s destruction.

Cornu tells the annual conference of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) that the government will place on the parliamentary agenda, by April, a law proposed by Caroline Yadan, who represents French citizens abroad, including many Jews in Israel.

The controversial bill, to fight “renewed forms” of antisemitism, bans calls for the destruction of a state, and expands the crime of defending terrorism.

“Calling for the destruction of the State of Israel is calling to endanger the lives of a people,” and “cannot be tolerated any longer,” says Lecornu, who also assesses that “to say ‘from the river to the sea’ is a call for the disappearance of Israel.”

The French prime minister stresses that specific Israeli policies are legitimate grounds for debate, and asserts: “What the current Israeli government is doing in the West Bank violates international law.”