Visit to Israel: Braun-Pivet accuses Mélenchon of putting “a new target on his back”, the Insoumis responds

The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, victim for years of numerous anti-Semitic threats for which she filed several complaints, accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Monday of having put "a new target on her back", by criticizing her support visit to Israel this weekend, saying she was “very shocked”.

Ms. Braun-Pivet estimated on France Inter that the leader of France Insoumise had not “chosen” his words “by chance”, in particular the term “camper”, a reference according to her to concentration camps. Jean-Luc Mélenchon had accused Ms. Braun-Pivet on Sunday of “camping in Tel Aviv to encourage the massacre” in Gaza. “Not in the name of the French people!”, he protested on X (formerly Twitter). “Knowing Jean-Luc Mélenchon a little, I am convinced that the word camper was not chosen by chance and that the fact that I favor massacres is once again a new target that I am being put in back,” she explained. "This is very serious".

The Insoumis en chef hit back again, calling into question an “absurd policing of words” whose sole aim would be to “divert attention from (the) serious political error” of Yaël Braun Pivet. Which is accused by Jean-Luc Mélenchon of “attributing anti-Semitic content to the word “camp”. “With Braun-Pivet, the degradation of political controversy has reached unprecedented levels,” he wrote on X.

“I don’t understand why it’s the Jewish identity that stands out: I’m French, I’m not practicing, I’m not a believer but some people just don’t see that anymore,” she also lamented. “When I read certain tweets, when I directly receive threatening letters, of course I feel in danger, when I cannot leave my house without police protection,” detailed the President of the Assembly.

Asked about the opportunity of this 24-hour visit to Israel where she notably visited Kibbutz Beeri and the site of the rave party where hundreds of people were killed and kidnapped during the attacks carried out by Hamas Islamists on “Saturday black” of October 7, she assured that she expressed “unconditional support” for “the existence of Israel”, not for “the government of Israel”. “The voice of France has always been a voice which advocates the existence of two States, a Palestinian State and to ensure the existence of this Palestinian State and the security of Israel,” she explained. “And today, the security of Israel is not assured, nor the existence of the Palestinian state.”