France: Suspended from his job for supporting Palestine! Let’s unite against repression!

The pro-Palestinian militant who was detained in Paris continues facing more repression, on this occasion in his workplace. We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement by the National Bureau of the Ligue de la jeunesse révolutionnaire (LJR) and Jeunes révolutionnaires (JR).

“Naturally, the Palestinian people’s masses and their revolutionary vanguard can always count on our mobilization and active solidarity in favor of Palestine and its promising resistance.”

Georges Abdallah

The French State, in its infamous indignity, now notorious and public, continues its campaign of support for Israel, for colonization, and for the genocide committed against the Palestinians. Indeed, after providing political, military, economic, and logistical support to Israel, France continues this sordid project by increasingly violently and frequently attacking pro-Palestinian activists who rise up to denounce this genocidal project and to express their support for the Palestinian people. We are particularly thinking on the dozens of police calls to these activists who we do not know, the repression against Timothée Esprit, against Elyas d’Izmalène, Rima Hassan, the student movement where students have notably been temporarily expelled from Sciences Po, the organizations threatened with dissolution, fines, prohibitions on demonstrating, police custody…

After detaining our comrade Alex upon his arrival from his flight on March 4, holding him in custody for 48 hours, and then bringing him before the court with judicial supervision until his trial, which will take place on May 15, the day of the Nakba, the harassment continues.

Indeed, in addition to a search that took place at his home during his police custody, our comrade has just learned that he has been provisionally suspended from his job for a duration of four months, until the end of his contract.

After attempting to intimidate our comrade by threatening him with prison, depriving him of his freedom for 48 hours, imposing judicial supervision on him, and prohibiting him from demonstrating. After vainly trying to break his will and make him cease his activism by sentencing him in 2024 (for having entered a football stadium wearing a T-shirt of Georges Abdallah and carrying a Palestinian flag on October 7, 2022) to a three-year ban from attending sports venues during events, a reminder of the law, and being placed on the S-file list [Translator’s note: is a file applied to innocent and condemned people, which marks them as a investigated by the State and relevant for the “security of the State], the State is now trying to make him renounce through his professional activity.

This is not a matter of individuals but rather a collective attack against the pro-Palestinian movement, an attack that has not succeeded in intimidating us or dividing us into good and bad supporters.

The comrade is not alone in facing this ordeal; several gatherings across France have demanded his release, and dozens of organizations have publicly supported him. Active solidarity has been our weapon and grows stronger every day. Because attacking one of us is attacking all of us, defending one of us is defending all of us! Let us not fall into the trap of division.

The imperialist French State is trying to silence the voices that rise up, whose only crime is to support the Palestinian resistance and refuse to submit to a dictatorship that criminalizes support for the struggles of oppressed peoples.

This reactionary offensive demands the broadest and most combative solidarity possible in order to denounce the state that seeks to silence dissenting voices. There is no need to agree on everything, but only on fundamental democratic principles: the freedom to express oneself, to assemble, the right to protest, and to international solidarity. These fundamental democratic principles are under attack today and require a broad and united defense, lest we slide from reactionary measures into fascism.

The repression against our comrade continues, but so does the resistance! We are thus calling for a broad mobilization demanding the end of the proceedings against our comrade, his reinstatement at work, as well as compensation for the harm suffered. We announce that a major support campaign will be launched because we are among those who, in the face of adversity, double our efforts, and we will not capitulate.

We reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people and its resistance, as well as with all those in France and around the world struggling for its freedom and emancipation.

The time is for unity, so let us resist and move forward together—revolutionaries, anti-imperialists, and sincere democrats—to confront this anti-democratic attack and to reaffirm that yes, to revolt against injustice and genocide is just and legitimate.

“There are moments when remaining silent means becoming complicit…”

Georges Abdallah

Being against the genocide of Palestinians is not a crime! Financing and supporting this genocide, as the French State does, is! Palestine will live and will win!

National Bureau of the Ligue de la jeunesse révolutionnaire (LJR) and Jeunes révolutionnaires (JR)

We draw your attention to the previous statements and articles published on this matter: