French-Israelis settlers face lawsuit in France

The association Lawyers for Justice in the Middle East (AJPO) indicated Friday that it had filed a complaint in Paris targeting French-Israelis and French entities that, according to them, are perpetrators or accomplices of the crime of colonization.

The AJPO, an association established in 2002 under the co-presidency of the renowned human rights defense lawyer Gisèle Halimi, filed a complaint against unknown persons with the constitution of a civil party on Thursday, explained its current president, lawyer Dominique Cochain, to AFP.

According to an AJPO statement, the complaint targets French-Israelis who settle “in illegal settlements” or join “the Israeli army, which commits serious abuses in the West Bank against the Palestinian civilian population.”

This population “is expelled by the army and forcibly transferred out of areas illegally allocated to settlers,” the association denounces.

The complaint also targets French entities, including associations, that recruit in France people wishing to make their aliyah (the act for a Jew to settle in Israel) so that they “integrate into illegal settlements.”

Israel announced at the end of May a major expansion project of settlement in the occupied West Bank, with the creation of 22 new settlements.

Israeli settlement is regularly condemned by the UN as illegal under international law and as one of the main obstacles - along with the continuation of violence between the two sides - to a lasting peace solution between Israelis and Palestinians through the creation of a viable Palestinian state living in harmony with Israel.

About 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, among 3 million Palestinians.