Israel-Palestine debate seizes French National Assembly after Rafah offensive

The atmosphere in the French National Assembly was tense on Tuesday after Sébastien Delogu, a member of parliament for the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) group, held aloft a Palestinian flag during a question period in parliament.

The session was immediately called to a halt and Delogu was given the highest possible sanction according to the French National Assembly’s regulations: a two-week suspension along with 50 percent wage deduction for two months.

Delogu brandished the flag as Trade Minister Franck Riester was answering a question by another LFI MP regarding France’s position on Palestinian statehood and asking to sever economic ties with Israel. President Emmanuel Macron has said that while he supports a two-state solution, he did not want recognition of Palestinian statehood to be done in an “emotional” context.

The scenes in the National Assembly came on the day Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized Palestinian statehood in a coordinated move that has angered Israel. No member of the G7 industrial powers — including France, the United Kingdom and the United States — have done so.

Two lawmakers engaged in a scuffle and exchanged slurs after the flag incident, in a sign of the heightened tensions the issue has provoked in the French political sphere. Meyer Habib, a conservative MP who represents French citizens living in different Mediterranean countries including Israel, interrupted a media scrum with LFI parliamentarian David Guiraud. The leftist representative called Habib a “a pig in the mud of genocide” as the two men pushed each other. Habib later called Guiraud’s remarks antisemitic.

Guiraud said his comments were motivated by Habib’s past remarks in which he had called the population in Gaza a “cancer.” 

LFI as a movement and Habib individually have been at the heart of the French debate around Gaza since Hamas’ October 7 attacks and Israel’s subsequent war. The leftist movement has centered its EU election campaign around Gaza, repeatedly accusing Israel of committing a “genocide.” Habib, on the other hand, has remained a vocal supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and criticized France’s calls for a ceasefire.

The deadly Israeli strike over a tent camp in a western Rafah evacuation zone during the weekend which reportedly killed nearly 50 displaced Palestinians has triggered demonstrations in France, with thousands of protesters gathering in the streets of Paris Monday and Tuesday.