French President’s Party Boots Politician Over ‘Anti-Semitic’ Tweets
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — The party of French president-elect Emmanuel Macron withdrew from its parliamentary elections ticket a politician who made statements deemed anti-Semitic.
Christian Gerin, a journalist, was taken off the En Marche ticket Friday, a day after he was nominated to represent the party in next month’s elections for the French parliament, in connection with messages he wrote from 2013 through this year on Twitter.
Laurence Haim, a spokesperson for En Marche, confirmed that the suspension was over the tweets.
In one tweet, flagged as “anti-Semitic” by the LICRA watchdog group, he wrote: “When will there be a separation between CRIF and state?”
CRIF is the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, whose critics say wields too much influence over French politicians.
Gerin also wrote on Twitter: “The only solution: BDS.” Advocating for a boycott of Israel, which is the ideology of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, is illegal in France, where it is considered a hate crime.
LICRA, one of France’s best-known and oldest civil rights watchdogs, said in a statement earlier this week that there are “clear anti-Semitic connotations” to the statements by Gerin.
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