Elias d’Imzalene, a founding member of Urgence Palestine, was charged with “incitement to antisemitic hatred and violence”. The speech was given in Paris in September 2024 during a political gathering where pro-Palestinian voices declared their renewed intent to mobilise against the genocide.

“Are we ready to carry out an intifada in Paris? In the banlieues? In our neighbourhoods?”

When d’Imzalene uttered these words, he could not have known that a native informant was secretly recording everything. The informant gained recognition as an “insider” who exposed Muslims as inherently violent and antisemitic through literary works celebrated by Islamophobes.

After publishing extracts of the speech on his X account and declaring that “intifada” actually meant “civil war”, the state initiated legal proceedings against d’Imzalene. A number of Zionist organisations openly supportive of the Israeli genocidal government declared their intent to join as plaintiffs in the case.

A first trial resulted in a suspended sentence and a fine. D’Imzalene appealed his conviction, and a second trial was held in January 2026.

The prosecution of d’Imzalene is part of a wider effort in France to criminalise Palestinian solidarity by treating the language of anti-colonial resistance as antisemitic hatred and violence, a move backed by Islamophobic and pro-Israel groups and reinforced by foreign lobbying.