A public meeting at the Cirque Électrique with Judith Butler and numerous guests, initiated by the signatories of the “Permanent War or Revolutionary Peace, We Must Choose!“ open letter, and co-organized with l’UJFP, Tsedek, l’AFA Paris-Banlieue, NPA, Révolution Permanente et Paroles d’honneur.
December 6th, 7:00-10:00pm
19:00
A message from Angela Davis.
19:15-20:15
Against Antisemitism and its Instrumentalization,
Judith Butler, member of the Academic Board of Jewish Voice for Peace, philosopher, author notably of Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism (2012), and Precarious Life. On the Power of Mourning and Violence (2004), in conversation with Françoise Vergès and Olivier Marboeuf.
20:30-22:00
Against Antisemitism, Against its Instrumentalization, and for Revolutionary Peace in Palestine, interventions by the signatories of the following open letter, and Thierry Labica.
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Racism is inexorably on the rise in France, be it Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, or Rromphobia, and as is antisemitism.
The fight against State racism cannot allow the slightest distinction between all these forms of racism. Contrary to what the Macron government and his objective allies claim, antisemitism is not, and must not be, the poor relative of the antiracist movement. What is more, antisemitism at the head of the State irrigates our whole society. It is the current Minister of the Interior who, in his book Le séparatisme islamiste, extolled State antisemitism under Napoleon, reproducing the worst antisemitic clichés of our history. It is the same minister who expressed his indignation at the sale of kosher (and halal) food in French supermarkets. Eighty-eight far-right deputies currently sit in the National Assembly, some of whom with perfectly explicit neo-Nazi pasts.
That does not dispense us from being attentive to all forms of Judeophobia, which traverse all social classes, both white and non-white. The fight against antisemitism, like the fight against all forms of racism, is too serious to be left in the hands of the irresponsible. There are serious reasons to be concerned about its instrumentalization, for too long used to stifle immigrant movements, attack the radicality of the social movement, and, in the context of the mass massacres carried out by Israel in Gaza, to normalize “unconditional support” of ethnic cleansing. This is counter to France’s historically more balanced position. When drawing up a first assessment of the demonstration called for by the Presidents of the National Assembly and Senate last 12 November, Le Monde newspaper, echoing a considerable proportion of the international press, considered that the main political lesson of the day was the new standing of Marine LePen’s Rassemblement national (National Rally) party thanks to the unprecedented level it reached in its de-demonization process during this march.
Those cynically playing with this fire are making two very serious mistakes. First, they are putting Jews in danger by naturalizing the link between Jews and Israel, and by trying to make us believe that the RN, founded by members of the Waffen SS, or Eric Zemmour’s Reconquête (Reconquest), who has sought to rehabilitate Pétain, are more respectable than left-wingers who refuse to play the game. Secondly, they are making themselves accomplices to war crimes.
The fight against colonialism and imperialism is indissociable from the fight against racism. That is why all self-respecting anticolonialism is on the side of the oppressed, in Gaza and the Global South, and resolutely fights BOTH Islamophobia AND antisemitism.
In our urgent context, rejecting all the forms of cynicism with which our ruling classes and mass media feed us, and on the strength of what we have just declared, we demand an immediate ceasefire. For we want to save lives. All lives
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