A Paris court acquitted French historian Georges Bensoussan of incitement to hatred against Muslims on Tuesday.
Mr Bensoussan, who is the editor of the magazine the Shoah History Review, was sued by several anti-racist groups for saying in a radio debate in October 2015 that “in French Arab families, babies suckle anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk”.
Mr Bensoussan said he was quoting an Algerian scholar.
The court ruled that Mr Bensoussan “cannot be accused of stigmatising the entire Muslim community” because he said in the same debate that he was “only referring to a segment of that community, the Salafists or people under their influence”.
There was no intent, “there can therefore be no offence,” ruled the judges.
“I feel joy after this acquittal because for the first time since the debate took place 16 months ago I heard intelligent reasoning. The judges analysed the case deeply and listened to the debate. Their conclusion was that I never intended to stigmatise France’s Muslims and Arabs and never implied they were antisemitic by nature,” Mr Bensoussan told the JC.
“What worries me is that anti-racist associations such as Licra (League Against Racism and Antisemitism) joined those suing me.”
“Instead of fighting racism, some associations have developed rogue anti-racism whose goal is to intimidate people to stop all debate. Just look at the number of people being sued for alleged incitement,” said Mr Bensoussan.
“This strategy works. Scholars are too scared to talk freely because they can face costly and painful lawsuits.”
The Muslim association CCIF (Umbrella Association Against Islamophobia in France) had accused the historian of racism based on the fact he used the expression “suckling antisemitism with their mother’s milk”, but the court rejected the claim.
“It’s a mere figure of speech called catachresis,” said the judge. In a catachresis, words are used out of their usual context.
The CCIF said it would appeal the decision. In a statement on its website, it said: “These days it’s so important to unite the nation and denounce hate speech. This trial was an opportunity to show what the limits of free speech are. We regret the court did not seize the opportunity.”
Mr Bensoussan got support from several writers and historians, including philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, Boualem Sansal, historian Pierre Nora and Armenian genocide expert Yves Ternon, who felt relieved by the ruling.
“The acquittal was the only possibility. The offence was entirely in the CCIF’s imagination,” Yves Ternon told the JC. “Georges Bensoussan had done nothing wrong.”
