Two French Israeli national activists were issued court summons by French judges due to their “complicity in genocide” and “incitement to genocide” in Gaza by blocking humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave, Le Monde reported.
The warrants were issued to Nili Kupfer-Naouri and Rachel Tuito.
Kupfer-Naouri is a lawyer and president of the right-wing activist organisation Israel Is Forever, while Tuito, commonly known as Touitou, is an activist and spokesperson for another right-wing organisation, Tzav 9, which has a history of blocking trucks headed for Gaza.
The French investigative magistrate directed Touitou, whose group blocked and attacked the convoys, and Kupfer-Naouri, who backed the actions, to appear before the court, without ordering their arrest.
Activists respond
Taking to X, Kupfer-Naouri said, “In addition to the military fronts on which our IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers are fighting with bravery, an additional front has opened: that of truth and justice. I am proud to fight on this front! No one will silence me.”
Touitou also wrote on X, “If peacefully demonstrating with an Israeli flag against the fact that a terrorist organisation seizes humanitarian aid, diverts it and resells it at a high price to Gazans is a crime – then there’s no need to look down on the Mullahs: France is Iran! I will always fight to defend the truth, my people and my country.”
In a separate interview with a pro-Israel news website, Kupfer-Naouri had called the French investigation “antisemitic madness,” adding that she would no longer be able to “set foot in France.”
Summons can lead to potential detainment, but do not automatically mean arrest. They may be issued by investigating magistrates without needing approval from anti-terrorist prosecutors, who handle genocide cases.
Pro-Israeli French activists were also being investigated for “public incitement to genocide,” according to news agency AFP, with additional summons reportedly being issued for 10 other people.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Palestinian rights groups Al-Haq and Al Mezan had initially filed a complaint in this matter last year. The court proceeding is one of the first of its kind, according to the lawyer representing the organisations.
“These warrants mark the first judicial recognition that deliberately depriving Palestinians in Gaza of humanitarian aid can constitute complicity in genocide,” lawyer Clemence Bectarte was quoted by Guardian.
