The French judiciary has issued its first warrants for “complicity in genocide” against two French-Israeli women who took part in protests blocking aid lorries to Gaza in 2024, a lawyer has told The National.
The warrants, which were reportedly issued in July and now made public, are intensification of France's legal proceedings against dual nationality citizens involved in the Gaza war, including soldiers. About 4,000 French-Israeli soldiers are estimated to have served in the two-year long war, according to French sources.
“It’s the first time that a national jurisdiction considers that deprivation of humanitarian aid may amount to complicity in genocide,” said French lawyer Clemence Bectarte, who represents the coalition of Palestinian campaigners behind a lawsuit last year directed at the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office for complicity and incitement to genocide.
“It’s an important step towards accountability and efforts made towards accountability by human rights organisations including Palestinian organisations,” Ms Bectarte said.
Judicial sources contacted by The National said that investigations were continuing but declined to comment on the identity of people involved and on the existence of warrants for reasons related to “the efficiency of the investigation”.
Jail threat
They said that an judicial investigation was launched in May involving two French people for blocking humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip on charges of genocide, direct incitement to genocide, and complicity in crimes against humanity.
Nili Kupfer-Naouri of the Israel Is Forever group and Rachel Touitou of the Tsav 9 group, both believed to live in Israel, have confirmed they received the demands to appear before an investigating magistrate in France.
“The risk is that I will no longer be able to set foot in France because I have no intention of going to French jails, neither in police custody nor otherwise,” Ms Kupfer-Naouri said last month in an interview with The News website. She described the accusations against her as “anti-Semitic folly”.
“A serious issue is that this would set an unfortunate precedent for all our French and Israeli soldiers who participated in the 'war of redemption' [in Gaza] and who want to visit their families in France,” Ms Kupfer-Naouri added.
To be carried out, the warrants must be enforced when the suspects are physically present on French territory.
The French chapter of Israel Is Forever this week launched a campaign to support Ms Kupfer-Naouri. It said that she had participated in “citizen actions aimed at stopping the so-called 'humanitarian' trucks sent to Gaza, which everyone knows directly supply Hamas – the terrorist organisation responsible for the October 7 massacre and countless crimes against the Jewish people”.
Israel Is Forever described the warrant as “absurd” and “dangerous”.
“If it were to succeed, no Israeli soldier holding French citizenship could travel to France without risking prosecution. It is Israel’s very legitimacy to defend itself that is being called into question here,” it said.
“There are military fronts, where Israeli soldiers defend Israel with weapons in hand, and there are now legal fronts, where Israel must be defended through law, truth, and justice.”
Official investigations
France's National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office has also launched a separate investigation for war crimes against a French-Israeli soldier for humiliating comments made about a Palestinian detainee who appeared to have been tortured.
A third investigation is continuing over the death of children in Gaza in Israeli strikes who held French citizenship. A preliminary investigation is also continuing against two French snipers part of the so-called Ghost Unit, according to media reports.
Prosecutor's office is competent to investigate cases involving French nationals even when the crimes were committed outside of France.
These investigations do not include the crime of genocide in the charges which so far only apply to the cases of Ms Kupfer-Naouri and Ms Touitou. Israel denies accusations of genocide.
The three Palestinian campaigners involved – Al Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights – were sanctioned by the US in September for their participation in international legal proceedings against Israel. Also parties to the case are by Franco-Palestinian collective Nidal and the French Jewish Union for Peace.
Israel launched a retaliatory war against Gaza in October 2023 after Hamas-led attacks killed about 1,200 people. More than 71,000 Gazans have died, including more than 500 since a US-brokered ceasefire was struck in October.
Humanitarian organisations have warned that living conditions in the enclave continue to deteriorate. Aid lorries remain restricted by Israeli authorities, which say this is necessary for security reasons.
