Four hard-left French deputies, including two national deputies and two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), have declared a hunger strike in solidarity with the Palestinian people after being detained by Israel.
The detained deputies are Francois Piquemal, Marie Mesmeur, Rima Hassan, and Emma Fourreau.
The four deputies were among 30 French citizens detained by Israel after boarding the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of 45 ships aiming to break Israel’s siege on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians. According to Manon Aubry, a France Unbowed member of the European Parliament, the detention conditions are harsh, with over 10 people per cell and difficulty accessing water.
Aubry described the situation as “difficult” and called on French authorities to repatriate their nationals. “It’s time for France to finally take action,” Aubry said, echoing her party’s national coordinator Manuel Bompard’s calls for “France to finally say something” on French television channel LCI.
France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon slammed “the cowards of the French government”, pointing out that detained nationals from several other countries have already been returned home from Israel. “We have no news from them” apart from “brief exchanges with their lawyers and with the French consul who was able to visit them,” Aubry told French radio station Franceinfo.
Meanwhile, former Macron minister and current MEP Nathalie Loiseau countered that “France is doing what it needs to do” and “is providing consular protection to its citizens who were part of this flotilla”. She called France Unbowed’s involvement in the flotilla “troubling”, saying “Is it really to shed light on the Palestinians and their suffering in Gaza, or is it a self-promotion effort? I’m afraid the latter is the case.”
The situation remains tense, with the French government facing criticism for not doing enough to secure the release of the detained deputies. The four deputies have declared a hunger strike in solidarity with the Palestinian people, echoing calls for action from their party’s national coordinator, Manuel Bompard.
