French lawmakers reject debate on petition critical of new antisemitism bill

French lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a petition calling for the withdrawal of an antisemitism bill proposed by lawmaker Caroline Yadan, despite the text receiving more than 700,000 signatures.

Members of the National Assembly’s law committee voted to dismiss the petition, titled “No to the Yadan law,” by 30 votes to 21.

The petition opposed Yadan’s bill aimed at combating what she described as new forms of antisemitism by broadening the scope of related offenses.

Supporters of the dismissal argued that a separate debate on the petition was unnecessary, as the bill itself is scheduled to be debated in the National Assembly on Thursday.

“It would be perfectly redundant to have a debate on a debate that is already going to take place,” lawmaker Pierre Cazeneuve said, according to LCP National Assembly, the French parliamentary TV channel.

Left-wing opposition lawmakers criticized the move, arguing that dismissing the petition disregarded the views of hundreds of thousands of signatories.

La France Insoumise called the decision "an insult" to the petition’s supporters and urged people to protest outside the parliament on Thursday.

Mathilde Panot described the decision as a “scandal” in a post on US social media company X.

“I am referring the matter to the President of the National Assembly so that this petition leads to a debate in the chamber,” she said.

“They will not extinguish this historic citizen mobilization,” she added.