Rabat – The French Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, filed a complaint against Moroccan-French journalist Zineb El Rhazoui, accusing her of “glorifying terrorism.”
“I have today submitted to the Paris Public Prosecutor the report concerning the offense of glorifying terrorism in relation to the statements made by Ms. Zineb El Rhazoui during an interview with the newspaper Nouvelle Aube published on October 4,” the minister wrote on X on Tuesday.
In the interview, the journalist compared Israel to a terrorist organization, refusing to condemn Hamas’ attacks on Israel in October 2023.
“I do not condemn October 7,” she said, “There are no civilians in Israel since everyone does military service and comes to colonize a land that doesn’t belong to them,” she added.
In December of last year, France also stirred controversy by revoking the Simone Veil award from the journalist due to her pro-Palestine position.
Valerie Pecresse, president of the regional council of Ile-de-France, announced that France’s decision to revoke the award from the journalist came in response to El Rhazoui’s social media post, where she accused Israeli Occupation Forces of “genocide.”
For Pecresse, the journalist’s comments “terribly hurt” French people who lived through the Holocaust.
The Ile-de-France politician said on X that the journalist’s “courage” and the “fight against Islamism” led the region to originally award her the prize in 2019.
“But her recent statements… have terribly hurt our compatriots who experienced the barbarity of the Holocaust,” Pecresse said.
