The withdrawal of Bill No. 575, known as the ‘Yadan Bill’, is undoubtedly a first victory for all those who rallied against this attempt to silence the movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
A genuine grassroots movement has risen up against this bill, which seeks to criminalise any criticism of the Israeli state’s colonial policy and support for the Palestinian cause. The Yadan parliamentary initiative bill (PPL), under the pretext of combating ‘new forms of antisemitism’, was in fact aimed at restricting the freedom of expression of activists engaged in the Palestinian cause, notably by ever further broadening the offence of ‘glorifying terrorism’ and by introducing the offence of ‘calling for the destruction of a state’, a legal concept that makes no sense whatsoever.
A bill condemned by a wide range of organisations, institutions and leading figures: elected representatives, legal experts, prominent academics, trade unionists, as well as the CNCDH (advisory national commission on human rights) and UN rapporteurs.
By shelving the citizens’ petition, which gathered 707,957 signatures, centrist, right-wing and far-right MPs have made a mistake. They failed to listen to the voices of hundreds of thousands of citizens mobilised by the fears raised by this pointless and dangerous bill. They failed to organise a formal debate following the second most-signed petition in the history of the National Assembly.
This mistake has now been partially rectified, as the government has finally its parliamentary group to withdraw the Yadan bill from the National Assembly’s agenda. This setback is thanks to the extraordinary mobilisation against this freedom-destroying bill, the meticulous work of civil society in highlighting all the weaknesses, lack of rigour and dangerous nature of the text, and the pressure exerted by the six parliamentary groups that publicly expressed their opposition to the Yadan bill.
A collective victory in a struggle that has mobilised the France-Palestine Solidarity Association since November 2024. A collective victory resulting from our work with our partners in the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine, the LDH (Human Rights League), Amnesty, the UJFP [French Jewish Union for Peace] and others, and the mobilisation of the National Collective for a Just and Lasting Peace between Palestinians and Israelis. A victory achieved through the joint mobilisation of elected representatives, political parties, solidarity organisations, students, trade unions...
But beware: the French government could table a bill as early as next June. We must remain vigilant, as the parliamentary group “Ensemble pour la République” has announced that the government will incorporate provisions from the Yadan bill. We will have two more months to prepare for this, and it is highly likely that its aim will be to divide the united front of opposition that has made its voice heard today.
Whatever the content of the bill, no one will stop us from mobilising against genocide, apartheid, occupation and colonisation. No one will be able to prevent us from denouncing Israeli crimes in Gaza, the West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, Lebanon and throughout the Near and Middle East.
And no law will silence solidarity with the Palestinian people in France.
They will not silence us!
The AFPS national Executive Committee,
16 April 2026
Photo: Protest against the Yadan Bill outside the National Assembly on 14 April 2026 © AFPS
