France’s highest court of appeals has upheld a decision that found BDS advocates guilty of inciting hate and/or discrimination, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions has reported.
Last week the Court of Cassation ruled on a case involving two attempts to boycott Israeli products in the Carrefour supermarket, one in 2009 and one in 2010. The boycotters were wearing shirts with the slogan "Long Live Palestine, Boycott Israel," handed out pamphlets stating that the sale of Israeli goods supports "war crimes" in Gaza, and yelled slogans such as, "Israel assassinates, Carrefour is complicit."
The Court of Cassation, the highest appeals court for civil and criminal matters in France, said that the actions demonstrated an attempt to discriminate against a particular country, in this case Israel. The ruling was based on France's law dealing with freedom of the press, which forbids "discrimination, hatred or violence toward a person or group of people on grounds of their origin, their belonging or their not belonging to an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a certain religion."
The defendents Laila Assakali, Yahya Assakali, Assya Ben Lakbir, Habiba Assakali, Sylviane Mure, Farida Sarr, Aline Parmentier, Mohammad Akbar, Jean-Michel Baldassi, Maxime Roll, Jacques Ballouey and Henry Eichholtzer have been ordered to pay €12,000 ($13,200 US) in fines as well as court expenses.