On Tuesday, the French Court of Cassation, the highest appeals court in France, upheld a lower court decision in which promoters of a boycott against Israel were found guilty of inciting hate or discrimination and fined a collective $14,500.  The Court of Cassation’s ruling affirmed criminal convictions from the Colmar Court of Appeals of 12 people who advocated for a boycott against Israel at a supermarket in the city of Mulhouse in 2009 and 2010.  These anti-Israel boycott supporters wore t-shirts calling for a boycott of Israel and passed out fliers that said “buying Israeli products means legitimizing crimes in Gaza.”

France’s Freedom of the Press law provides that those who “provoke 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” are subject to imprisonment or fines of up to $50,000.  Another law, the Lellouche Law of 2003, states that targeting individual nations for discriminatory treatment is a violation of French anti-racism laws.  Both of these laws were used by the Court of Cassation and the lower court to show that anti-Israel boycott supporters, including supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, incited hate or discrimination.