By World Israel News Staff

The French government has taken aim at radical Islamist groups, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced Wednesday, with plans to ban an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas activist group formed after the Gaza invasion of Israel on October 7^th, 2023.

Last Wednesday, Retailleau told CNews/Europe 1 that his office had launched proceedings to dissolve the Urgence Palestine organization, an anti-Israel activist group which he accused of harboring radical Islamist views.

“Islamism is an ideology that tries to exploit a religion. There is a disfigurement of faith,” Retailleau said, adding that France needed to “hit the Islamists.”

“We must not disfigure the just cause of the Palestinians,” he said, adding that “many of our Muslim compatriots profess a faith that is perfectly compatible with the values of the Republic.”

Couching its agenda in far-left rhetoric including allegations of “colonial oppression” and “imperialist wars,” Urgence Palestine has accused Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip and advocated for a boycott of businesses linked to Israel as part of the larger Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

The group has responded to the French government’s efforts to dissolve the group, accusing the Macron government of embracing “a policy of repression aligned with the slogans of the French far-right and the Israeli government.”

“Denouncing genocide will never be a crime. Resisting injustice is not a crime. Demanding freedom for the Palestinian people is not a violent extremist demand. On the contrary: it is a human imperative.”

In addition to targeting Urgence Palestine, Retailleau has announced plans to dissolve a far-right group, Lyon Populaire (The Young Guard).

Founded in 2019, Lyon Populaire’s activists have frequently clashed with left-wing demonstrators and pro-Palestinian activists