Home > BDS on trial before the Paris Court of Appeal : A MASQUERADE

BDS on trial before the Paris Court of Appeal : A MASQUERADE

by CAPJPO - Open-Publishing - Saturday 10 March 2012

A masquerade, lies and hypocrisy were once again on show last Thursday 8 March in the Court of Appeal of Paris where Olivia Zémor appeared for posting on the website www.europalestine.com a video of a boycott action by a dozen organisations which took place on July 4, 2009 in a Carrefour supermarket in Evry.

The 4 plaintiff lawyers as usual repeated their same old mantras about the "great Israeli democracy" that we seek to "delegitimize" by daring to speak of apartheid, as well as "Hamas terrorism" (Mr. Goldnadel and Co. must have pronounced the word “KHamas” at least one hundred times).

Customers of Carrefour were "offended" by this "grotesque show that they were made to witness" (funny how these Israeli agencies are now worried about constomer’s well-being !).

After singing and dancing, militants staged the scene of a massacre, lying down on the shop floor, covering themselves with sheets stained with ketchup, as a reminder of the dead and wounded Palestinians during the bombing of Gaza that happened just months previous. What happened over there was not something to be merely written off and forgotten about.

The very people who supported the bombing of civilians in Lebanon and Gaza, who demanded the bombing of Libya, and who want to see Iran as the next victim, claim that nonviolent boycott actions are a discrimination.

They clamour for the conviction of activists who dare call for a boycott of the "Jewish State", as they like to call it, therefore hoping the judges will deduce a parity between the boycott of Israel and the boycott of Jews . In short, Jews are the victims. Exit the Palestinians.

The occupation and settlements do not exist. Indeed one wonders where they might occur, since the plaintiffs, and the likes of Netanyahu and Lieberman, do not even recognize any borders for Israel .

Supporters of the Israeli settlements advocated, quite seriously, that we can discuss Israel’s policies in "conference rooms" (sic) but not in supermarkets ! (They prohibited all conferences about israeli apartheid lately !)

Given the pathetic level of the plaintiff’s speech (indeed why bother about the speech when everything is actually based on the political pressure that they exert on the judges ?), the remarkable testimonies of the MEP Nicole Kiil-Nielsen and the Israeli activist Leehee Rothschild, put the record straight, each knowing what they were talking about when describing real discrimination, the type suffered by the Palestinians, and like the stubborn refusal of our leaders to take action against the occupying power, to stop the persecution and ethnic cleansing that has been going on for over 60 years.

Our lawyers Ms. Dominique Cochain and Mr. Antoine Comte were brilliant, dismantling step by step the prosecutor’s closing speech who argued that Olivia Zémor was guilty of "discrimination against people", namely the “Israeli producers" of fruit juice, oranges and other products that the video calls to boycott.

Ignoring the fact that the calls for boycotts of other countries by various personalities are allowed in France, and that this video was produced and published by other organizations, the representative of the Public Prosecutor justifies the fact that Olivia Zémor is the only accused, stating: "it is well known that her association plays a leading role in France in the boycott of Israel." An incredible confession, not having much to do with the law, but clearly says : let’s cut off the head of the boycott movement and the rest will crumble away !

All magistrates may not have the courage and independence of Anne de Fontette, who refused to request a penalty against Olivia Zémor on June 17 2011, in first instance before the 17th Magistrates’ court of Paris. Last Thursday, the Public Prosecutor representing the Government obeyed the orders of her superiors, and demanded a fine of 1000 euros against EuroPalestine’s chair, a penalty hardly consistent with the case at hand if one sincerely believes that the action depicted in the video was an act of racist discrimination.

But who speaks of sincerity here?

The judges will give their decision on May 24.

And in the meantime we expect you to come in large numbers next Thursday, the 15th of March for another BDS trial, where we’ll show that that intimidation and threats have no effect upon us.

Trials are very costly in France (each one means thousands of euros), and they try to exhaust us financially as well but we rely on your solidarity. Please send us if you can (check or bank transfer) some money !

We are determined to keep the fight for justice and against the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

The BDS campaign is expanding in France and in the rest of the world and it will continue as long as the Palestinians are oppressed, killed, expelled from their lands.

And so will our determination to fight for the freedom of circulation (15 to 21 April) for Palestinians and for the women and men who want to visit them. The Welcome to Palestine initiative is already gathering more than one thousand participants from many countries. It is not too late to join. Please contact us for more information at contact c8a bienvenuepalestine.com

All the best,

CAPJPO-EuroPalestine : http://www.europalestiine.com