Paris Suburb Honors Jailed Marwan Barghouti
Image by getty images
The municipality of a Parisian suburb honored Palestinian Fatah faction leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences in Israel for acts of terrorism against civilians.
The naming of Barghouti as honorary citizen of Aubervilliers on Dec. 22 came shortly before a French court ordered the nullification of an honor conferred by another Parisian suburb, Bezons, on another Palestinian, Majdi Irhima al-Rimawi, who assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi more than a decade earlier.
CRIF, the umbrella of France’s Jewish communities, on Dec. 24 wrote to Aubervilliers Mayor Pascal Beaudet, who was elected as representative of the Communist Party of France, to protest against the decision to honor Barghouti, which the city described in a statement as part of its commitment to support what it described as political prisoners, including Barghouti and the late president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.
“Nelson Mandela, whom you have the audacity of referencing, was indeed a political activist sentenced to prison, but for his opinions – not his actions,” CRIF President Roger Cukierman wrote.
In September, another communist mayor of a municipality near Paris also honored Barghouti, by naming a street after him. Valenton Mayor Françoise Baud also named a square after Mandela on the same day.
The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, is currently in a legal fight with Valenton over the dedication of Barghouti Alley, which BNVCA says constitutes incitement to violence at a time when the prevalence of anti-Semitic crimes is increasing.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
