France’s Muslim voters seek to end ‘criminal blindness’ on Gaza through EU elections.

The rain pouring on the market of the council estate of Les Tarterets, in the city of Corbeil-Essonnes, 30km southeast of Paris, chased away customers.

On a Wednesday morning late last month, in front of his fruit and vegetable stall, Ahmed Salama, 43, a Frenchman of Egyptian origin, waited patiently for customers while listening to the news on the radio.

The incessant bombings of the Palestinian city of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, by the Israeli army was taking all his attention. “How can France and other European states tolerate the genocide of the Palestinian people without reacting?” he asked Middle East Eye bitterly.

“Babies have been beheaded, families decimated, thousands of people killed under the complicit gaze of political leaders who continue saying that Israel has the right to defend itself.”

The footage of the aftermath drew horror and condemnation worldwide, including in France, where what is now known as “the Rafah massacre” fuelled the popular protest against the Israeli war on Gaza.

The military campaign, launched after an unprecedented Hamas-led attack that killed over 1,100 Israelis on 7 October, has caused the death of more than 36,550 Palestinians, mainly civilians.

‘Always the same Islamophobic tune’

While Salama continued his indictment against political leaders, he was repelled by comments made on the RMC radio by Bruno Retailleau, president of the right-wing Republicans (Les Republicains/LR) party in the French Senate.

Retailleau accused the biggest left-wing group in the French parliament, France Unbowed (La France Insoumise/LFI), of exploiting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to attract Muslim voters ahead of the European elections that are being held from 6 to 9 June.

Asked about an incident that took place the day before, when LFI MP Sebatien Delogu brandished a Palestinian flag in the National Assembly and was subsequently sanctioned by a 15-day exclusion, Retailleau accused the leftist party of “complete communitarian drift”.