French Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj has been subjected to what appeared to be anti-semitic insults during a rally against Islamophobia.
Guedj was booed and chased away from the demonstration held on April 27 with some protesters shouting: “Get out! PS [Socialist party] Zionist party! We have no respect for sh*t like you!”
The images of the incident, widely circulated on social media, sparked outrage among fellow Socialists.
Speaking out about the incident on April 28, Guedj expressed sadness, saying he felt as though he had been “sent back to his origins”.
‘That’s how I experienced it and we’re not going to beat around the bush. Behind the ‘dirty Zionist’ that I heard, there was obviously something else,” he said, implying he had been a victim of anti-semitism.
The protesters accused him and the Socialist party of enabling anti-Muslim sentiment in France.
Regardez @JeromeGuedj qui se ramène alors que ses discours servent les islamophobes dans ce pays. pic.twitter.com/XftcerDFOh
— Younès Yahiaoui (@youpi2195) April 27, 2025
Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on X: “Unbearable. Jérôme Guedj has every right to take part in a demonstration against Islamophobia. You cannot fight hatred by fuelling it. Dividing the anti-racist camp only strengthens the far right.”
The rally was organised following the death of Aboubakar Cisse, a young African man who was stabbed to death on April 25 in a mosque in the village of La Grand-Combe in the Gard department in southern France.
Guedj emphasised that he had joined the rally to uphold the values of French universalism.
“I could have stayed away but it would have hurt me. I was deeply saddened by Aboubakar’s murder,” he told media.
“We need unity, not division. We can be moved by the events of October 7 [2023 Hamas attack on Israel], by what’s happening in Gaza and by Aboubakar’s death, all at the same time.
“I’m a republican universalist. When a Muslim, a Catholic, or a Jew is murdered, it is the Republic that is weakened. We must not leave anyone isolated,” Guedj added.
