“The war against Hamas is legitimate” (Jérémie Patrier-Leitus, deputy for Calvados)

2023-10-22 04:15:00

A delegation of MPs (Renaissance, Horizons and LR), accompanied by Manuel Valls, visited Israel from Sunday to Wednesday. Jérémie Patrier-Leitus, elected official (Horizons), testifies.

What lessons do you learn from your visit?

First, we saw the extent of the horror and unspeakable barbarity of the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas in Israel. We went to the Shura military center, the identification center for the 1,400 victims of these abominable massacres. A moment that is difficult to bear. 85% of the bodies were mutilated and some were so mutilated that they might not yet be identified. We went to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the martyr villages, with its ransacked houses, massacred families where the bodies of children were piled up and burned, grandmothers raped then murdered, like this 88-year-old lady, survivor of the Shoah, who came to settle in Israel to find a peaceful life. The videos and images exist because the kibbutzim were equipped with numerous security cameras, but the authorities do not release them out of respect for the families. We went to Sderot, another martyred village, a few kilometers from Gaza. These four days were trying, but we wanted to testify while political leaders, notably certain deputies from La France insoumise, qualify these acts as war crimes when they are crimes once morest humanity.

Israel: The lost paradise of the kibbutzniks

How are the Israelis reacting?

Beyond the astonishment in the face of this barbarity, there is their resilience which is expressed through their unity. Refusing to let themselves be defeated, they do not show a desire for revenge. The astonishment comes more from the fact that they had perhaps adapted to living a few kilometers from an Islamist terrorist organization. They are angry with Netanyahu’s government, which will have consequences for Israeli politics later. But today, they are uniting around their army to destroy Hamas. There will never be peace in the Middle East until Hamas is destroyed.

What role can France play?

First, clearly tell the French that the Israeli people have been victims of nameless barbarity perpetrated by an Islamist terrorist organization. Then, support Israel’s desire to destroy Hamas and make it clear that this war once morest Hamas is necessary and legitimate, because it is part of the fight of France, and of democracies once morest radical Islamism, as recalled President Macron.