By Ali Abunimah – Electronic Intifada
In an extreme sign of the anti-Muslim hatred and pro-Israel sentiment among France’s political elite, an elected official took to Twitter to ask mockingly if Palestinian children killed in Israel’s onslaught on Gaza were “halal meat.”
Jacques Renaud, the deputy mayor of Montreuil-Juigné in western France, uses Twitter to post a constant stream of anti-Palestinian and pro-Israel propaganda.
Twitter user @StonMichel responded to one of Renaud’s tweets, calling for “a bit of humanity” and attaching a graphic image apparently of the dismembered body of a young Palestinian child.
Renaud responded, “It’s halal meat, I suppose.”
Renaud’s sickening reply was retweeted more than 1,100 times, but many of the responses to it expressed disgust.
Children have been among the most vulnerable to Israel’s two-week bombardment in Gaza. At least 121 children are among more than 650 fatalities. Hundreds more children have suffered horrifying injuries, while the rest live in a state of “shock and horror” at the carnage around them.
The carnage has been so appalling that even Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister in France’s staunchly pro-Israel government, condemned Israel’s “massacres” in Gaza and demanded a ceasefire.
Al-Kanz, a publication oriented toward the Muslim community in France, reported that they called the Montreuil-Juigné town hall “to make sure that this really was the Twitter account of Jacques Renaud. It was confirmed to us that the elected official does have a Twitter account and this was him.”
Renaud is a member of the right-wing UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
“It will be interesting to see which members of parliament react and who will be silent,” Al-Kanz stated, urging members of the public to write to their representatives asking them to denounce Renaud’s horrifying statement.
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