Woman arrested in France for T-shirt critical of Israel

[Tennis]

France has ratcheted up its draconian repression of free speech about Palestine with the arrest of a woman for wearing a T-shirt supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

The activist was taking part in a march for International Women’s Day in Paris last Sunday when undercover police swooped in and detained her for wearing a piece of clothing with the words “Boycott Apartheid Israel” printed on it.

According to the newspaper L’Humanité, officers from the Renseignements Généraux, the intelligence service of the French police, were involved in monitoring the demonstration in which numerous social justice and leftist groups took part.

France remains under the state of emergency severely limiting public freedoms that was declared after last November’s atrocities by suspected Islamic State extremists who killed 130 people in Paris.

The young woman was taken to Paris’ 3rd district police station for questioning.

Hundreds of marchers halted their procession and demonstrated loudly outside the police station for an hour until she was released, as a video posted on Facebook and this clip tweeted by a march participant show:

Political repression

The woman has been summoned back to the police station for questioning at 2pm on Monday on suspicion of “inciting hatred by reason of [national] origin, through writing,” according to L’Humanité.

Supporters are planning to demonstrate outside the police station at that time.

The feminist collective 8 Mars Pour TouTEs denounced the arrest and pledged support for the activist and for the BDS movement.

The arrest was evidence of the “criminalization of political struggles,” the group said, vowing to mount strong solidarity in response to “the police state and political and racist repression.”

The left-wing grouping Ensemble has condemned the arrest, describing it as a consequence of the “security climate” in France.

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Wow this is ridiculous!
You can't even wear a T Shirt now protesting Israel's human rights offenses?

[Theodarzna]

I am more shocked EUtopia is actually cracking down on lefties finally.

[Deleted]

Am I supposed to fake outrage because of this?

Israel ultimately is the good guy and a civilized nation in a region full of ass backwards shit holes. Of course you are free to voice any concerns and it's bad that they'd arrest someone for voicing her opinion by uh wearing a t-shirt?

[Tennis]

Free speech is truly under attack when you can't even wear a T Shirt. These are really scary times we are living in.

[Belize]

Free speech is truly under attack when you can't even wear a T Shirt. These are really scary times we are living in.

Says the person that is ok with banning opinions he doesn't agree with.

Your persona is falling apart Tennis.

[Tennis]

Says the person that is ok with banning opinions he doesn't agree with.

Your persona is falling apart Tennis.

Nope. I am in favour of protesting countries with awful human rights records. It's really hypocritical of France to allow criticism of North Korea or Russia but not Israel.

Really unacceptable.

[Acidbaron]

So let me get this straight we have to believe an article based purely of a tweet?

And yeah the guy who wrote this and is co founder of the site (always a good sign of poor reporting with they are their own contributing editor!) clearly has no other motives considering he's the author of " The Battle for Justice in Palestine" and "One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse", hmmm he clearly is not catering to an audience with this piece....

Last but not least, this should have had you face palming so hard that the article should have given you a headache "France remains under the state of emergency severely limiting public freedoms that was declared after last November’s atrocities by suspected Islamic State extremists who killed 130 people in Paris."

Not sure what country you are from but antisemite laws have been enforced for a long long time and if she was indeed shouting certain things this would get you arrested, you know that holocaust thing that happened? Kinda created those laws in most of western Europe....

[dd614]

Of course tennisace loves SJW causes but seems to despise Israel. It never ceases to amaze the contradiction.

tennisace, comparing Israel to North Korea is rank anti-Semitism. That said, I don't agree with censorship of any kind because I'm not a liberal.

[Fojos]

You would be arrested if you wore a shirt saying "Hamas are scum" as well, even if it's true.

[Seditian]

Honestly surprised you didn't blame this on sexism. You're starting to lose it, Ace.

[Deleted]

You would be arrested if you wore a shirt saying "Hamas are scum" as well, even if it's true.

I don't think you would be. France seem to hate anything Islamic well before the November atrocities.

[Seranthor]

Wow this is ridiculous!
You can't even wear a T Shirt now protesting Israel's human rights offenses?

How horrible, she has to live with in the laws of the country she lives in. The inhumanity, this is what happens when you live in a country with hate speech laws, sometimes those laws can bite you in the ass.

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Free speech is truly under attack when you can't even wear a T Shirt. These are really scary times we are living in.

Hate speech is hate speech, whether you support what it says or not. They have laws like that in France. Dont like that fact, perhaps you should complain about hate speech laws, wait, dont you folks have hate speech laws right there in Canada? I guess you are oblivious to that aren't you?

[nextormento]

Whatever bit of truth is in there, that's what clamping down on hate speech looks like.

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dont you folks have hate speech laws right there in Canada?

Hate propaganda, specifically.

[Seranthor]

Whatever bit of truth is in there, that's what clamping down on hate speech looks like.

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Hate propaganda, specifically.

How interesting, what qualifies as 'hate propaganda'?

[Tennis]

I can't see how you can be in favour of free speech and not be incredibly outraged after this woman was arrested for wearing a T Shirt.

[Bryntrollian]

I don't see what the big deal is with this article and its almost as if these idiots didn't know the laws of their country or something.

[Super Kami Dende]

Doesn't really surprise me.

But at the same time if you are stupid enough to wear a shirt openly hating an entire Nation in public well I don't really feel sorry for you.

I hate Islam, but I wouldn't be stupid enough to wear around a "Fuck Islam" shirt in my country since I think it would fall under some sort of hate-speech law.

[Seranthor]

I can't see how you can be in favour of free speech and not be incredibly outraged after this woman was arrested for wearing a T Shirt.

I guess you and John Kerry have something in common... you were for it before you were against it. You really should pick a side, either you ARE for free speech or you are against it. You cant be both, well you could be, but then you'd be a hypocrite. And it's okay to be a hypocrite TA, it really is. Not everyone has the moral decency to stick to their convictions regardless of the situation.

[Kalis]

I am more shocked EUtopia is actually cracking down on lefties finally.

What has the EU got to do with anything? It is an internal French matter, nothing to do with the EU whatsoever.

[Vyxn]

it is poetic justice that the repercussion given out for hate speech liberals have been advocating for is used against them