The normalisation of fascism in France?

I don't use the F-word lightly. I have no wish to dilute the horror of fascist ideologies by associating them with just-a-wee-bit conservative politicians: to do so is too easy and probably counterproductive. But from this distance the current French regime seems clearly to be 'on the spectrum'. Fascism views the nation as a natural reality possessed of an absolute identity, and is willing to deploy coercive violence against dissident individuals to retain this identity. Simply put, the law is being deployed to reinforce the notion that some people groups are the right kind and others are the wrong kind.

At the same time as the high-profile Roma scandal is making the headlines, the suppression of the Israeli boycott campaign progresses apace. I received an email from the French EuroPalestine campaign which highlights the forthcoming trial of Alima Boumediene-Thiery, a member of the French Senate, because she participated in a BDS action in Paris a year ago. This constitutes, apparently, "incitement to racial hatred" as well as a breach of the curious statute: “discrimination against the Israeli nation”. The notorious plaintiff is Sammy Ghozlan whose apparent assessment of Judge Richard Goldstone is that he is "scum" and "a bastard", and who compares Obama to Pharoah who "transformed the Jewish people into slaves". He's entitled to express his opinions, but the irony is his astoundingly mainstream crusade to silence the BDS campaign.

The trial is something of a test case and some fear it is politically motivated. Boumediene-Thiery has been active on issues relating to immigration, Islam and Islamophobia, prison conditions and so on, all rather hot issues in Europe's latest pariah state. She is also an outspoken critic of successive Israeli regimes, having secured the successful vote in the European Parliament in 2002 on suspending the preferential commercial agreement between Europe and Israel.

Meanwhile, activists themselves are due to be in court to defend (wait for it) the posting of this video on their EuroPalestine site. Apparently Ma'asara mayor Mahmoud Suleiman's comments are "criminal" and EuroPalestine are therefore complicit.

Sympathisers in France are being asked to repost the video on their sites and being urged to write to the State Prosecutor requesting that they too can stand trial.