An investigation was opened following a complaint filed by the League for Human Rights (LDH) regarding comments by former deputy Meyer Habib (connected with Les Républicains), who had compared the population of the Gaza Strip to “cancer”The Paris prosecutor’s office reported on Monday, October 28.
“Interviewed on the set of Radio J [le 20 octobre 2023] on the military response that Israel should give [à la suite de] the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 as well as the reception of the Palestinian population, the deputy [Meyer Habib] Accustomed to controversial comments, he described the Palestinian population as a “cancer” and gave an alarmist and hostile speech, inviting rejection and hatred towards this population.wrote the LDH on its website.
“The great Arab solidarity! Because today they know what cancer this population is. To whom we gave everything. Israel left the Gaza Strip »Meyer Habib responded to a question about Egypt’s refusal to take in Gazans fleeing Israeli bombing.
“My words were knowingly distorted.”
On February 2, the LDH filed a complaint for “aggravated public insult and incitement to hatred based on origin or belonging to an ethnic group, nation or race.” This complaint, received on July 16, led to the opening of an investigation entrusted to the brigade for the repression of personal crime, said the prosecutor’s office, requested by Agence France-Presse.
“My words were knowingly distorted.”Habib reacted to AFP. “Obviously I have never addressed the entire population. [gazaouie]but only to the Hamas terrorists, as well as the thousands of Gazan civilians who unfortunately supported and accompanied them on October 7, such as those who beat and lynched the hostages when they arrived in Gaza.he added.
Elected in 2013 as deputy of the French Abroad and close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Meyer Habib was defeated in the early legislative elections in July. He has shared numerous skirmishes, sometimes very virulent, with left-wing deputies since the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The former Franco-Israeli deputy was the subject in December 2023 of a request to lift parliamentary immunity presented by thirty-nine left-wing deputies and rejected. These deputies accused him of“apology for war crimes” Israelis in the Gaza Strip. He had said twice: “And this is not over!” »while discussing the death of a Quai d’Orsay agent following Israeli bombings against a residential building housing civilians.
