First Gaza Genocide Case Against French Nationals Filed in Paris

Date: 27 November 2024 - 21:36

News ID: ۱۳۴۰۷۷

PARIS (Dispatches) – A French organization and a French-Palestinian woman have filed a complaint against the French managers of two pro-Israel NGOs for “complicity in genocide and incitement to commit genocide in Gaza”, according to a statement shared with Middle East Eye.
The complaint against the Zionist regime is Forever and Tzav-9 targets actions by French nationals to block humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the coastal strip devastated by Israel’s onslaught, which has killed more than 44,282 people since October 2023.
The plaintiffs are the French Jewish Union for Peace and a woman who has 13 family members in the Gaza Strip. They are supported by the Urgence Palestine NGO.
The complaint, filed with the senior investigating judge of the crimes against humanity division of the Paris judicial court, is the first precedent under the grounds of genocide, the most serious in the hierarchy of crimes, before the French courts.
In the 70-page complaint, the petitioners denounce “the organization, participation and call to participate in concrete actions blocking humanitarian aid to the occupied territory of Gaza, in particular by physically preventing the passage of trucks at border crossings controlled by the Israeli army.”
“These acts committed by French nationals are part of the total blockade of the Gaza Strip, while Israel exercises exclusive and effective control over the territory’s land, sea and air borders, and is already imposing drastic restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid, on which civilians depend for survival,” the statement read.
“This deliberate subjection of the Gaza population to conditions of life likely to bring about its destruction, and more particularly the use of starvation, constitutes the crime of genocide under both international and French law,” it added.
The applicants argue that French courts have jurisdiction over any French national who takes part in or incites blocking aid, which they argued may amount to the crime of complicity in genocide.
They chose to institute a civil action, which systematically leads to the opening of a judicial investigation, in order to avoid the case being closed without further action by the public prosecutor.