Tense debate in the Socialist Party primary on Gaza and anti-Semitism

The question of Gaza gave rise to a heated exchange of arms between the candidates in the primary of the social-democratic space, Wednesday evening on LCI. During a courteous and dull debate until then, Ségolène Royal, questioned about anti-Semitism in France, estimated that its “very worrying rise” was “due” to “the current leaders of Israel”. “I believe that, on the contrary, we need more Israeli and Jewish voices to say that what is happening is absolutely intolerable,” she declared, believing that this would make it possible to “curb the rise of anti-Semitism”, because “people are mixing everything up”. “People say to themselves: it’s Jews in general. But no, it’s Netanyahu and those around him,” she added.

These comments sparked an outraged reaction from Jérôme Guedj. The socialist deputy said he was “very shocked” by what he considers to be an “incredible injunction” made to French Jews. “We have not asked French Muslims to raise their voices to dissociate themselves from the crimes committed by Daesh, fortunately, because they are French before being Muslims,” he said, judging that this approach went against “republican universalism”. Rolling her eyes to the sky, Ségolène Royal replied that “we must accept the nuances” and the points of view of everyone, before asking him “not to caricature the thoughts of others”.

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“Be careful with words”

Raphaël Glucksmann also contested the position of the former minister. “It is not up to the Jews to denounce [Benyamin] Netanyahu,” he said, but “to the democrats, to the humanists.” The Public Place candidate called for “being careful with the words we use”, in a context “so flammable with the rise of anti-Semitism”. He also said he was in favor of sanctions against the Israeli prime minister to show that “there is a cost” to the crimes committed by Israeli leaders.

The discussion continued on the characterization of the situation in Gaza. Ségolène Royal defended the use of the term “genocide”. “If words are important, we must recognize the genocide,” she argued. Raphaël Glucksmann refused to use this qualification, preferring to stick to the terms used by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which referred to “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes”. This first televised debate brought together the five primary candidates, Olivier Faure, Raphaël Glucksmann, Ségolène Royal, Jérôme Guedj and Emmanuel Maurel. Activists' voting is scheduled for October 9 and 10 for the first round, then October 16 and 17 for the second.