Palestinian activist Maryam Abu Daqqa said that she was the victim of a fierce racist campaign that led to her deportation from France to Egypt, pointing out that the events in Gaza revealed “new Western fascism.”
She stated in her speech at the solidarity conference with the Palestinian people, at the headquarters of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, on Saturday, November 11, that “French security services kidnapped her, took her to prison, and tried her as a terrorist because of posts she published on the social networking site Facebook supporting the right to resistance against Israeli occupation.”
In her speech, activist Maryam Abu Daqqa thanked Gaza for exposing what she called the new “Western fascism,” noting that Western regimes feel the pain of animals, but ignore the suffering of the people of Gaza.
The Council of State, the highest administrative judicial body in France, had given its approval to expel Palestinian activist Maryam Abu Daqqa, thus overturning the decision of an administrative court in Paris that had suspended the Interior Ministry’s order to expel her.
The Council of State stated in its justification of the decision that “the Minister of the Interior has the right to confirm that it was a mistake for the judge in the Administrative Court in Paris to suspend the expulsion” of the activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The Council acknowledged that “no material damage to public order was observed” during the public activities carried out by Abu Daqqa (72 years old) on French soil, according to Agence France-Presse.
However, the Council pointed out that Abu Daqqa “is not only a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but she is a leader in the movement,” claiming that the Front “committed 13 attacks against Israeli civilians between 2002 and 2015, causing many victims,” as it put it.
The Council considered that “the presence on French territory for the purpose of expressing an opinion regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as a leader in an organization that has claimed attacks against Israeli civilians, may cause serious disturbances in public order.”
The French non-governmental organization Euro Palestine reported that French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, last month, ordered the arrest of Palestinian activist Maryam Abu Daqqa in the city of Marseille before heading to Toulouse, with the intention that she would be deported.
On October 5, Abu Daqqa was scheduled to speak at a symposium held at the French University of Lumière-Lyon 2 under the title “Israeli settlement and apartheid… What future for the Palestinians?”, but that sparked controversy and the university asked the seminar organizers to withdraw the invitation. Despite this, Abu Daqqa came to the hall and sat in the audience.
Since a bloody attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas on October 7, which resulted in the killing of about 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of about 240 others, Tel Aviv has launched an unprecedented military operation against the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are children and women.
France is witnessing demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters organized demonstrations in Paris last week, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and denouncing Israel’s actions after its army intensified its operations in the Strip.
Thousands of protesters marched in central Paris to demand a ceasefire, holding banners reading: “Stop the cycle of violence!” and “Doing nothing, saying nothing, means complacency.”
