Version imprimableWhy does Interior Minister Retailleau want to dissolve Urgence Palestine and the Jeune garde organisation?
I think that Urgence Palestine and the Jeune garde, each in its own struggle, have built a fairly strong activist dynamic. These organizations brought another dimension, another way of thinking, a new political analysis and a new political commitment. They have recruited new people, a new generation of activists, and thus have been able to reach a part of French society. Urgence Palestine has succeeded in influencing political life in France in relation to Palestine.
I think that Retailleau is not alone, that there is pressure from the Israelis behind this offensive. Concretely, this followed a request from right-wing MPs who are linked to Israel, and who asked him to dissolve Urgence Palestine. [1] The same is true for Palestine Action in Britain, which lost its appeal on 5 July. [2]
There is pressure to remain in humanitarian solidarity, without commitment on political bases linked to the resistance and an international struggle.
What is the specificity of Urgence Palestine in relation to the traditional pro-Palestinian movement?
I think that its specificity is the place that some Palestinians have taken, and the role they have been able to play. In France as elsewhere, it is a place that had disappeared for some time. We believe that the Palestinian diaspora will have a very important political role to play in the future in the fight and in the resistance.
It is a role that must be organised, strengthened politically, because it is a role that the Oslo Accords wanted to eliminate. Since 1994, for 30 years, the aim has been to eliminate the role of the Palestinian diaspora. So today, everywhere, in France but also in the United States, in London, in Barcelona, a Palestinian generation has awakened. This Palestinian generation is the driving force behind all events from October 7 until today.
In London, several Palestinian movements play a key role. There is a Palestinian generation in France, with Beitna in Belgium, with the Palestinians of Barcelona who played a very important role even before October 7. There is an awakening in the diaspora to play a role and regain control on the political level.
There is currently a change of position in the movement regarding the assessment of the Oslo Accords.
In general, many Palestinians have said that Oslo is a catastrophe, the third catastrophe, this time signed by Palestinian hands. At the time, people didn’t believe it, above all those who saw Arafat and Rabin shaking hands. But everywhere it was said that this would be the end of the conflict, that Israelis and Palestinians would live in peace, without seeing the fundamental issues – colonization, occupation – and without analysing the agreements signed. The second agreement, the Paris Agreement in 1996, which addresses economic issues, is the worst.
It was therefore an agreement claiming to be a peace agreement without giving back any rights to the occupied people. With Oslo, no fundamental rights were restored to the Palestinians.
Not to mention the nature of the Palestinian Authority...
Yes. When you accept the situation, there are two possibilities: either you are politically naïve, or you want to relieve yourself of a political commitment that can be expensive.
But today, no one can be naïve and not see reality. The people who remain stuck on the two-state issue and the Oslo Accords are therefore people who want to politically absolve themselves of the responsibility of really saying things as they are, both about the Palestinian Authority and about the reality of the genocide that is taking place.
Do you have any information on how people are trying to act, to resist, especially in the West Bank?
There are several issues, which are linked. In recent months, we have seen a new phenomenon, the emergence of new armed groups linked to Israelis. They are implementing the same idea as the South Lebanon Army, they have created two militias in southern Gaza, those of Abu Shabaab, in Rafah and another in Khan Younis. [3] In an interview published in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Yasser Abu Shebab makes it clear that his collaborationist militias are supported by the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli army and the United Arab Emirates. They are coordinating to create armed militias linked to the occupier in Gaza. These are the same groups that have stolen humanitarian aid and are attacking the population.
But there is also a new phenomenon in the West Bank: even if the Palestinian Authority is weak, it wants to redefine the situation politically. There has been an attempt by personalities and large families who are linked to the occupier. They want to declare Hebron an independent state with direct ties to the Israeli occupier. This is not new. In 1978, there was an Israeli project, called Rawābit al-Qurā (“Village Leagues”), which aimed to bypass some mayors and work with others, especially the important mayors. They were collaborationists, the objective was to replace the PLO with these mayors, but some were killed by the organizations present in the West Bank. [4]
Today, we are experiencing the political end of the Palestinian Authority. It no longer has a social base. The Israelis are therefore looking for an alternative to control the Palestinian territories. They are well aware that the void can be filled. Or they manage to fill it with new collaborationists – so they look in different directions, big families, business. Resistance can be expressed, even if the political parties are weak. They know well that a popular movement can break out at any time in the West Bank. The Israelis are trying to avoid it because they know that the West Bank is the strategic area that must not be lost, because a move there can hurt them a thousand times more than Gaza. This is what we saw in the first and second intifadas.
We have also seen youth mobilizations in recent years, and new activist groups.
In 2021, when there was the attempt to destroy Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood in Jerusalem, an offensive was launched, and this alerted the Israelis - the movement was unleashed everywhere in Palestine - in the territories of 1948, in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, in Gaza and in the diaspora. [5] It was the first time since 1948 that all five zones acted at the same time. I think 2021 brought the term “Palestinian people” back to the forefront. A political unity was formed around the resistance. This is what alerted Israelis, who understood the danger represented by the awakening of millions of Palestinians, in Israel, in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, which endangers all Israeli colonization.
What remains of this movement?
The Israelis suppressed this movement: thousands of arrests, years of imprisonment and the destruction that followed in the West Bank. I think that soon, something will happen again in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, that it will break out.
How will it work? What will be the trigger? We don’t know. But the enormous repression, the advance of colonization, the destruction became unbearable. We see the flight in the north of the West Bank, the refugee camps in the north, what the army called Plan X. [6]
I think that people see the moment coming when there is no future, no horizon, no solution, neither human nor political. The moment when there is nothing left. And I think that we are not far from the outbreak of a great revolt.
Do you have any information on how the resistance exists in Gaza?
We have entered a guerrilla war, that’s clear. But it does not have an organized, centralized command. There are resistance fighters everywhere, who have their experience, who are on their own ground, in the cities.
For example, yesterday there was an operation in Beit Hanoun, in the far north, near the border, a town that was razed to the ground at the beginning of the war 20 months ago. And yet there were 5 dead and 15 wounded on the side of the Israeli army. The Israelis know that the longer they stay in Gaza, the more casualties they will have.
Gaza is almost unliveable, two-thirds of the territory is occupied, only the centre is not. The Israelis; pretext for not occupying is that their prisoners would be in this area and that the risk of them being killed should not be taken. The reality is that they know that the longer they stay on the ground, the more casualties they will have.
Today, there are statements by Yair Lapid – candidate for prime minister – and former generals who say that the presence in Gaza will lead to many casualties in the Israeli army and that it is necessary to withdraw from Gaza, move towards a prisoner exchange – with Palestinian political prisoners – and try to find a solution.
I think that the resistance on the ground can continue for years, Gazans are well organized, they are resisting and there is popular support for this resistance.
But with a huge human impact. Some studies speak of hundreds of thousands of deaths. Do you have any echoes of what is happening in Jordan?
During the Israeli and US imperialist invasion of Iran, Jordan aided Israel. It hosts American, French and British bases. 3,000 American soldiers are stationed there.
They know that Jordan too, for the Palestinians, is a strategic place. The fall of the regime would create a huge political explosion in the region and in the world. It is the longest border with Palestine. The regime is weak, but it is held by the repression of the security forces. There have been thousands of arrests since October 7, in the population and also in the Palestinian refugee camps.
When the Red Sea was blocked by Houthi attacks, Jordan represented a crossing point, with the “land bridge” opened between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Jordan has therefore played an important role in unblocking the Israeli economic crisis. This has been its role for the past 20 months.
For the rest of the mobilization, how do you see things?
It is difficult to anticipate what will happen. There could be a 60-day ceasefire very soon. Trump says he is committed to stopping the war, so we will see what happens.
For my part, I think that the challenge is to renew the PLO, on a revolutionary basis, and by allowing the entry of all political parties. We need a long-term program of struggle because there is no political solution today, we must first create a balance of forces, and it is up to the Palestinians to do that. We must return to a commitment based on resistance and, from there, change everything.
And in terms of solidarity mobilization?
In the same way, we must change our political language, turn to resistance. And then everything around the Palestinians will also change.
On the side of Urgence Palestine, and of the Palestinians in general, we have a political role to play in strengthening militant commitment and deepening political analysis: on the importance of resistance, on the importance of a deep, politically committed solidarity. It must not be limited to humanitarian solidarity; it must be politically and militantly committed. This is our role for the coming months and years.
Firsr published 31 August 2025
Translated by International Viewpoint from Inprecor.
