A French court has sentenced a nursing student to three years in prison for allegedly “glorifying terrorism” on social media.
Zaiter said “46 days after an arbitrary and unjust detention for having denounced the genocide and expressed my support for Palestine in Nice, I finally find my daughter.”
The trial highlights France’s stringent stance on public speech and pro-Israel laws.
I feel like a bit of context is appropriate ‡:
During the October 21 trial, she defended her posts as emotionally driven responses to the genocide in Gaza, stating she aimed to critique Zionism, not Judaism. Despite acknowledging that some of her words were “very violent,” she insisted her intentions were misinterpreted.
The vast majority of people in France criticizing Israel don’t get arrested. The French have even elected a French-Palestinian for the European Parliament (Rima Hassan), who’s been caught red-handed spreading fake news about Israel training dogs to rape palestinians, and is not in prison †
She won’t go to prison for this (suspended sentence, plus ankle bracelet).
I can’t tell if she actually advocated for terrorism, because I can’t find her exact words. But I wouldn’t be so quick to defend her given the circumstances. It could be true that she broke the law.
In 2021, France adopted the infamous definition of antisemitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which deems criticism of Israel and Zionism and comparing Israel’s practices to those of the Nazis forms of antisemitism
How does that make any sense?
It makes sense to people who want to use the deaths of their ancestors as an excuse to do whatever the fuck they want.
It doesn’t
I wonder if Police nationale reads Lemmy?
Don’t worry they can’t read
Is it pro-palestine or pro-hamas?
Doesn’t matter; she’s still getting imprisoned for exercising her right to free speech.
In the eyes of French law, it does matter, their freedom of speech is limited (UK is even worse in this regard).
I do however agree that freedom of speech and communication should be upheld to the highest possible degree, even when some may find it offensive or consider it hateful.
It is, after all, the foundation of western democracy and humanitarian values.
