Paris: The president of the National Assembly in France suspended a session on Tuesday after a far-left lawmaker displayed images of children killed in the Gaza Strip. Yael Braun-Pivet, the president of the assembly, intervened when Aymeric Caron, a member of the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), presented the images during his speech in the government question and answer session. Braun-Pivet announced, “You do not have the floor. The session is suspended, and I will refer the matter to the bureau regarding the actions that occurred at the end of the session.”
According to Anadolu Agency, Caron described the situation in Gaza as a “concentration camp” where the Israeli army’s actions have reached a level of “barbarity.” He argued that such actions necessitate speaking in approximate terms to describe the ongoing “genocide,” claiming that 20,000 children have been “massacred.”
Caron further stated that Palestinian children are subjected to extreme violence, including being “burned, crushed, dismembered, decapitated, shot in the head, amputated without anesthesia, imprisoned.” He accused many in the chamber of being accomplices, specifically those who support the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, perpetuate far-right Israeli narratives, attack UN officials critical of Israel, and receive Israeli ministers in Paris without imposing any sanctions.
Caron emphasized the disparity in how Palestinian children’s lives are valued compared to others, saying, “If there are so many accomplices here, it’s because the lives of Palestinian children matter less to you than the lives of other children in the world. To you, they are just approximations, but to us, they are our children.”
He, along with fellow party members, displayed photographs of children killed in Gaza, including Bisan Al-Hindi, who died when a bomb struck her tent while she slept. Caron concluded his address by highlighting the individuality of the children, stating, “Like our children, they have names, they have faces, they had lives to live,” and asserting that the images reflect a “guilty conscience.”