The President of CRIF, the umbrella representative group of Jewish organisations in France, Francis Kalifat, wrote a letter to Paris’ public prosecutor to report about illegal actions and calls to boycott Israel in videos posted on YouTube.

In his letter to Francois Molins, Kalifat recalls two rulings of France Supreme Court that freedom of expression cannotr be a support for incitement to discrimination of a people.

In one of the rulings, the Court of Cassation, France’s court of final appeal, upheld the criminal convictions of 12 anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) activists who burst into a supermarket in 2009 wearing “Boycott Israel” shirts and handing out fliers that read, “Buying Israeli products means legitimising crimes in Gaza.”

In ruling against the activists, the court cited French anti-discrimination laws that prescribe imprisonment or a fine of up to $50,000 for parties that “incite discrimination, hatred or violence towards 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”.

The Court sanctioned the illegality of boycotting Israeli products and confirmed that freedom of expression can be subjected to restrictions and sanctions ‘’that are necessary in a democratic society in order to protect order and the rights of other individuals”.

Despite the rulings, Francis Kalifat said that ‘’extremely virulent’’ videos were filmed in various supermarkets in Paris or in the street that incited to boycott Israeli products and calling Israel a “criminal state’’.

‘’ Despite extremely clear prohibitions imposed by the French Justice, BDS France has not stopped from calling for a boycott of Israeli products,’’ writes Kalifat.

The CRIF President called on Paris prosecutor to ‘’urgently conduct all investigation to identify and arrest the perpetrators of such discrimination.’’

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that calls to boycott Israeli products fuel anti-Semitic sentiments.

He said French authorities ‘’must change their attitude” towards demonstrations that call for a boycott of Israeli products, which he accused of fostering a “nauseating climate” in the country.

“It is perfectly obvious how we have shifted from criticism of Israel to anti-Zionism and from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism,” Valls declared.