2024-04-28 19:41:00
A few red hands raised to the sky and a dangerous set of symbols…. This Friday, April 26, at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, pro-Palestinian activists exhibited their hands painted red. A gesture which has been described as anti-Semitic because it directly evokes the lynching of two Israelis in Ramallah in 2000, at the start of the second Intifada.
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The scandal erupts after a series of student protests outside Sciences Po Paris in recent days, demanding condemnation of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip as well as a call for a ceasefire. While students speak of a call for peace, others see an act of hatred. A look back at the symbols raised by the “red hands” controversy.
Apology for the Ramallah murders?
“Driven by anti-Semitic hatred in the deafening silence of a part of the Republican left, the right-thinking students of Science Po are glorifying a lynching! », hastened to write the socialist elected official of Strasbourg Pernelle Richardot, on X.
“The red hands symbol is a direct reference to the massacre of 2 Israelis by the population of Ramallah. Not a call for a ceasefire,” assured the author Raphaël Enthoven onrelaying a sketch by designer Joann Sfar.
For the attention of the uneducated. The red hands symbol is a direct reference to the massacre of 2 Israelis by the population of Ramallah. Not a call for a ceasefire. THANKS@joannsfar �� pic.twitter.com/tT1bibJtVR
— Raphaël Enthoven (@Enthoven_R) April 27, 2024
In Ramallah, on October 12, 2000, two Israeli reservists were killed by members of a Palestinian crowd who had managed to enter the police station where the soldiers were being held. One of the soldiers shows his bloody hands out the window, before the bodies are, one, thrown into the crowd, the other, hanged.
The scene is extremely violent and becomes emblematic of the second Intifada. At the 96th Academy Awards, several celebrities wore pins depicting a red hand, sparking similar controversy, with some linking the symbol to the events of 2000. “As an Israeli this image reminds me of lynching. Every Israeli remembers it. “, confided an Israeli journalist from Haaretz has Release.
A gesture to denounce injustices?
The symbol is also widely used by the UN during International Red Hand Day, an initiative launched in 2002 to raise awareness of the plight of child soldiers. This practice symbolizes a way of denouncing the responsibility of leaders in injustices and violence. A way of saying they have blood on their hands.
Outside of this international day, red hands often appear during demonstrations around the world. Whether during rallies against Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, to denounce inaction on climate change or as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In February 2022, environmental activists adopted this practice to draw attention to the publication of an IPCC report. Similarly, indigenous communities in Brazil used it to protest their treatment, while in 2018 it served as a means of protesting racism in Italy.
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