French lawmaker calls for sanctions on Netanyahu, citing double standard

Mathilde Panot, a lawmaker from the France Unbowed party in the National Assembly, called for sanctions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, criticizing the international community’s inconsistent response to the Middle East conflict. “Sanction against Netanyahu, as it is absurd to see that there have been 19 rounds of sanctions against Putin,” Panot said, referring to measures imposed over the war in Ukraine.

Illegal war and double standards

“You have a world and an international community that are allowing Trump and Netanyahu to drag the entire world into a war which, I recall, is an illegal war,” Panot told Franceinfo. She urged France to take a stronger diplomatic role through international institutions, proposing that negotiations take place within the UN rather than outside international law. She also called for coordinated action with countries like Spain that are rejecting the war.

Genocide in Gaza, war on Lebanon

Panot condemned how Israel’s military operations are framed: “It is not a war against Hamas, it is a genocide against the Palestinian people.” She added that “the war against Hezbollah is a pretext” for war against the Lebanese people. She criticized France’s “vassalization” to the United States and renewed her party’s demand to leave NATO’s integrated command so France can have a “non-aligned voice in the service of peace.”