LA TRIBUNE SUNDAY — After having ” won “ against LFI – Raphaël Enthoven, who had described LFI as “passionately anti-Semitic”was acquitted of the offense of insult by the Paris Criminal Court – and while the party has waived any appeal, you publish your pleading*. “I know this is going to trigger thousands of people who are not going to say nice things about me”you predict at the beginning of the book. What about two weeks after its publication?
RICHARD MALKA — First, thousands of people from all walks of life wrote to me, relieved that we could denounce LFI and its excesses, happy with this trial and to have preserved their freedom of expression – and therefore of criticism – of a political party! But I also received some unpleasant messages. Of the “His Zionists” notably. But no argument or contestation of the facts put forward. Not a single one. What would interest me would be a concrete debate on the 50 documented examples that I have advocated and published.
I would like someone to tell me why I am wrong to see an anti-Semitic drift in the remarks of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who revisits the attacks of Mohammed Merah, or who accepts the publication of the anti-Semitic caricatures of Cyril Hanouna or his remarks on the deicide people, etc. I would really prefer debate to invective!
In the same way that I would have liked them to come and argue in court, rather than practicing the empty chair policy after initiating this trial. The Melenchonists would have nothing else to say than to proceed by amalgamations, shortcuts and insults?
Activists, in their criticism, insist on the idea that you are attacking LFI because of its position on Palestine…
There is not a word on this subject in my pleading. I don’t blame LFI for anything they say about Israel. This is not my subject, I am only interested in the French situation. From there, why am I called “His Zionists” ? The favorite word of the Rebels on the networks.
They make all French Jews live in terror, and in particular high school students, college students, and students who are thus described from morning to evening, whatever the subject on which they speak. There is a kind of enjoyment in using these words. For many, we once again have the right to say “dirty Jew” using another term.
The national coordinator of LFI, Manuel Bompard, accused you on BFMTV of making a statement “outrageous” sans “no arguments”and to be “left the republican field” . What do you answer him?
How can he reproach me – or rather reproach Raphaël Enthoven – for leaving the republican framework because the latter used the words “deficient” et « con » while Jean-Luc Mélenchon describes a university president as« Eichmann » and journalists from “lackey”that he would be “healthy to hate”…
I would like him to explain this contradiction. Invoking this argument while one of his deputies, Thomas Portes, is playing with balloons bearing the image of a minister’s head, we must be daring. Who left the republican framework? Does he think he is addressing an audience so fanatic that he can tell them everything? Here are people who have been experiencing outrageous violence in the National Assembly for years, and who criticize Raphaël Enthoven for slight sarcasm. They don’t care about the world.
Manuel Bompard also believes that your reasoning reveals a racist prejudice: all Muslims are anti-Semitic…
He’s too smart to pretend he doesn’t understand. I obviously don’t blame Muslims for being anti-Semitic. I criticize the management of LFI for thinking that Muslims are anti-Semitic and for exploiting this thought. It’s different.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon welcomed in a tweet that the offensive nature of what Raphaël Enthoven had said had been recognized, while regretting that it was not punishable. He’s right, right?
It’s true. The court considered that Raphaël Enthoven’s comments were offensive and was right to do so. But Jean-Luc Mélenchon forgets the other half of the sentence. The court made an extremely courageous decision by considering that this insult is justified based on the documents provided. He considers that there are enough elements to be able to affirm that this party is anti-Semitic. It’s not nothing.
Let the young people, those who are tempted to join this party, and the other left-wing parties, let the left-wing voters who abhor anti-Semitism and racism inform themselves! You have to open your eyes. This party is unfavorable and it will be more and more so.
*Anti-Semitic Passion, by Richard Malka, Grasset, 144 pages, 11.99 euros.
