French lawmakers on Thursday were set to debate a controversial “anti-Semitism” law that would, among other things, make it illegal to “implicitly” condone or incite terrorism as well as outlawing calls for the destruction of a state recognised by France. The bill’s backers withdrew the draft legislation at the eleventh hour as it became clear the draft law would likely not pass – though the government will bring another bill before parliament in June.

Issued on: 16/04/2026 - 10:00Modified: 16/04/2026 - 23:07

Supporters of a draft law – based on the idea that rising anti-Semitism in the country with Europe’s largest Jewish population is grounded in an “obsessive” hatred of Israel – withdrew the bill hours before it was set to be debated on the floor of the National Assembly.

But though France’s left celebrated the retreat as a vindication of weeks of mobilisation against a bill that critics say would muzzle legitimate criticism of Israel and possibly even fuel the very anti-Semitism it is supposed to fight against, the government has made it clear that it will reintroduce a similar law – the details of which are not yet known – in June.

If passed, the law in its current form would have broadened the definition of “apology for terrorism” – defending or justifying terrorist acts, considered an offence in France – to include speech that “implicitly” justifies or downplays acts deemed terrorist. The law would also make it illegal to call for the “destruction” of any country recognised by France, punishable by five years in prison.

The draft law’s preamble leaves little doubt which country the authors have in mind.

“Today, anti-Jewish hatred in our country is fuelled by an obsessive hatred of Israel, whose very existence is regularly delegitimised and criminalised,” it reads.

“This hatred of the State of Israel is now inseparable from hatred of Jews,” the law says.

Read moreWhy is France’s bill against ‘new forms of anti-Semitism’ sparking controversy?

The proposed law – dubbed the “Yadan law” after lawmaker Caroline Yadan, who introduced it – has split the National Assembly. Critics say it is a misguided attempt to crack down on anti-Semitism that could backfire, possibly even fuelling further hatred against the Jewish community.

A petition on the official site of the National Assembly protesting the draft bill had garnered more than 700,000 signatures by Thursday – well above the half a million signatures needed for a petition to be debated before the National Assembly.

Despite this, the government’s centre-right coalition and the far right joined forces to vote against the petition being debated in parliament.

France has experienced a steep rise in anti-Semitic acts since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023 and Israel's devastating military campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip. In 2025, more than half of all reported anti-religious acts targeted the Jewish community.

But the 2024 annual report released by France's National Consultative Commission on Human Rights on the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia said its surveys have not found a statistically significant connection between respondents holding a negative view of the political or religious ideology of Zionism and anti-Semitic prejudices.

"It is therefore difficult to view anti-Zionism as the key driver of contemporary anti-Semitism," the report read.

Lawmakers on the left – from Socialist Party leaders to the Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed – have slammed the law as an attempt to stifle legitimate criticism of the Israeli government by defining it as fundamentally anti-Semitic. The far-right National Rally, the right-wing Les Républicains, the centre-right bloc and a handful of Socialist Party members including former president François Hollande had previously backed the bill.

But that support seemed to be dwindling in the days leading up to the vote. Socialist Party secretary-general Olivier Faure had said the centre-left group would vote against the bill, and members of the centrist MoDem party had increasingly distanced themselves from a draft law that the group this week said “undermines the cause it seeks to defend”.

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