In a ruling handed down late yesterday evening (18 June), the Paris Court of Appeal overturned the interim injunction issued by the Bobigny court on 14 June.

The associations ASER (Action sécurité éthique républicaines), AFPS (Association France Palestine Solidarité) and Stop Fuelling War, supported in their voluntary intervention by the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq, had served an interim injunction on COGES, the organiser of the Eurosatory arms fair, to take effective measures to prevent Israeli arms companies and their subsidiaries from selling their technologies at a time when the Israeli army is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, and the International Court of Justice is pointing to the plausible nature of ongoing genocide. This procedure was supported by several groups, including Stop Arming Israel France and Urgence Palestine.

On 31 May, the French government had instructed COGES not to welcomehost Israeli arms companies to the Eurosatory exhibition: COGES had cancelled their stands, but had not taken any steps to prevent delegations from these companies from entering the Eurosatory exhibition site and using the facilities of their subsidiaries.

It was this inconsistency that was corrected by the Bobigny judicial court, which ordered COGES to prohibit delegations from Israeli arms companies from entering the Eurosatory exhibition, and any company present on the stand to welcome them. COGES implemented this decision, and has indicated that it deactivated no fewer than 850 entry badges.... In retrospect, this showed the scale of the problem and the ability to remedy it.

The Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Bobigny judicial court, challenging the power of the judicial judge to interpret an act of government in the light of applicable international law in order to prescribe measures likely to give it full effect. This invocation of acts of government, which de facto prohibits the courts from taking an interest in France’s compliance with its international commitments in terms of respect for human rights and the rules governing the arms trade, is being contested by the applicant associations, which are reserving all avenues of appeal.

At the hearing before the Court of Appeal, the opposing parties made extensive use of the discrimination argument, which was also referred to in a judgment handed down by the Paris Commercial Court the same morning. We would point out that when it comes to the arms trade, it is standard practice to take an interest in the behaviour of a State. Furthermore, the measures taken by the COGES following the decision of the Bobigny court were not linked to the nationality of the visitors to the exhibition, but to their function in relation to Israeli arms companies.

The responsibility of the French executive and its culpable ambivalence are particularly engaged in this situation. On Sunday 16 June, the Director General of Armaments sent a letter to COGES, stating that the government was not asking him to take any action other than to remove the stands of Israeli arms companies.

The petitioning associations and the collectives that support them are questioning the President of the Republic: in terms of France’s respect for its international commitments, and in the face of ongoing genocide, is it possible, "at the same time", to take a symbolically powerful measure concerning the stands of Israeli companies, and to allow them to circumvent this measure en masse at the Eurosatory show in order to do business there?

More than ever, we need to mobilise against the presence at Eurosatory of arms companies that are actively contributing to the ongoing genocide. A new rally is called for Friday 21 June at 12 noon, at the Villepinte exhibition centre (RER B).

Associations/collectives in the coalition :

The summons to appear before the Bobigny court has been served by :
– the NGO ASER
– AFPS (Association France Palestine Solidarité)
– Stop Fuelling War
And Al Haq, in voluntary intervention in the writ.

This action is the result of the work of a coalition of around twenty groups,lawyers and non-lawyers, coordinated in a collaborative workspace that gives everyone access
access to legal strategy, including :
– Urgence Palestine
– Stop Arming Israel France
– League of Jurists for Peace
– TEJE (Travailler Ensemble Jeunes et Engagé-e-s)

The coalition is represented by lawyers Dominique Cochain and Matteo Bonaglia.

Around fifty organisations and groups have also lent their support to this action, right from its first stage.