France’s Indirect Role in the Livestreamed Genocide in Gaza
As the world watches Gaza starve, burn, and bleed in real time, the silence of global powers is no longer just political – it is criminal. Among these powers, France’s complicity is not loud, but it is lethal.
While Gaza’s skies rain bombs, its children perish from starvation, and its hospitals operate in ruins, France continued for months to offer Israel its “unwavering support,” parroting the worn-out phrase: Israel has the right to defend itself. But what right justifies killing over 62,000 civilians, including more than 14,000 children? What self-defense requires besieging 2.3 million people, cutting off water, food, and humanitarian aid?
1. Political Shielding at the UN
France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, had the power to push for a binding ceasefire. Yet for months it either abstained or delayed action, enabling Israel to continue its assault without international consequence.
- In October 2023, France abstained from a UNGA resolution for a humanitarian truce.
- In March 2024, France finally supported a ceasefire — but only after Gaza had already been turned into rubble.
2. Arms Trade and Military Tech
Though less publicized than U.S. and U.K. sales, France exported over €200 million in defense equipment to Israel between 2013–2022, including surveillance gear, targeting systems, and thermal sensors used on drones.
Even as the Gaza death toll mounted, no embargo was imposed by Paris, despite warnings from human rights organizations that such equipment could be used in war crimes.
3. Criminalizing Solidarity
France moved swiftly to ban pro-Palestinian demonstrations in October 2023. While Israeli airstrikes flattened apartment blocks, French police arrested peaceful demonstrators, banned Palestinian flags, and treated solidarity as sedition.
By silencing its own people, France helped suppress the moral pressure that could have saved lives.
4. Normalizing Genocide with Diplomatic Language
While humanitarian organizations and international courts spoke of war crimes and ethnic cleansing, France clung to sanitized language. Emmanuel Macron and top officials repeatedly emphasized Israel’s "right to self-defense," while ignoring the disproportionate, devastating toll on civilians.
Until recently, no French official dared to say the truth out loud: that genocide was underway.
5. A Sudden U-Turn — Too Late?
Now, amid global outrage and undeniable horror, France has finally taken a public U-turn.
“Israel is crossing its limits of genocide in Gaza. It must be pressurized by the international community to stop the war,” a French government source recently stated.
But is this too little, too late?
This shift in tone — while welcome — comes after nearly eight months of bombings, starvation, and systematic destruction. France’s delay in condemning the carnage allowed impunity to flourish.
6. Humanitarian Hypocrisy
France has acted decisively elsewhere — in Ukraine, in Libya, in Mali. But Gaza? Gaza was met with silence, delay, and diplomatic doublespeak. The UN, UNICEF, and Human Rights Watch have all confirmed that Gaza is now suffering mass starvation and collapse of civil life.
France’s voice, when it was needed most, was muted.
Conclusion: Silence Is Complicity — Even in French
During the Iraq War, when Iraqi resistance fighters killed U.S. soldiers, George W. Bush said, “It seems Iraqis have no hearts.”
Today, that statement applies to Western leaders watching Gaza’s genocide livestreamed, and doing nothing. Where are the French thinkers, authors, actors, journalists, conscience-bearers? Why have so few stood up against the slaughter?
They too “seem to have no hearts.”
Yes, France has finally spoken — but only after months of moral evasion, strategic cowardice, and complicity cloaked in diplomacy. The bloodshed was not only made in Israel — it was tolerated, enabled, and shielded in Paris.
History will remember.
Sources:
- UN OCHA Gaza Reports: https://www.ochaopt.org
- UNICEF Gaza Emergency: https://www.unicef.org/emergencies
- Amnesty International: France-Israel Arms Trade Reports
- ACAT-France: https://acatfrance.fr
- Haaretz, Al Jazeera, The Guardian (for casualty reports and French diplomatic positions)
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