Is the French judiciary against Palestine?

A recent decision by a French court seems to deny the widely accepted right of occupied populations to resist.Published On 21 Jun 2026On May 27, the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence sentenced me to pay a fine of €17,000 ($19,500), which includes compensation to Zionist associations that were civil parties to the case. It was a clear example of the troubling evolution in the French judiciary’s treatment of the Palestinian cause.Today, another case deserves greater attention because of what it signifies and reveals, because it is difficult to distort, and above all because it sheds light on a profound transformation in the French judicial system’s approach to Palestine. In March 2024, the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, the highest court in the French judicial system, upheld the conviction of Mohamed Makni, a businessman, father, and deputy mayor of Echirolles.The statement attributed to him did not exceed a single sentence: “They are quick to qualify as terrorism what in our eyes is a clear act of resistance.”This statement did not come from a Palestinian military commander or a Hamas official. Rather, it was a quote from Ahmed Ounaies, Tunisia’s former foreign minister and former ambassador under the regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to Russia and India, a figure far removed from any revolutionary discourse.Because he cited this political analysis, Makni was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended and barred from holding any public office for four months – a ruling upheld by both the Court of Appeal and in March this year, by the Court of Cassation, in a decision that can by no means be considered ordinary.