\u2018Recognizing a Palestinian state without prior peace\u2026 is not only pointless, it\u2019s counterproductive\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cRecognizing a Palestinian state without prior peace, without a structured political process, without guarantees for Israel\u2019s security or a deep reform of the Palestinian Authority, is not only pointless, it\u2019s counterproductive,\u201d she later told The Times of Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a move must be the culmination of a peace process, not its starting point. It must be conditional on the release of all hostages held in Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas, a genuine reform of the Palestinian Authority and mutual recognition between both states. Anything else is diplomatic recklessness and moral surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a joint press conference in London, July 10, 2025. (Leon Neal\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n Seban, 29, who\u2019s an avid boxer, is engaged in an intense battle on many fronts. Her book is just one of them. She often denounces antisemitism in media interviews, addresses the issue at conferences in France and abroad, and serves as European Advisor for the US-based Combat Antisemitism Movement. As a city council member in the Paris suburb of Rosny-sous-Bois, first elected in 2020, her role now includes overseeing efforts to fight discrimination and uphold \u201claicit\u00e9,\u201d (loosely translated as secularism), enshrined in France\u2019s constitution, underpinning the separation between state and religion.<\/p>\n Seban, who sees laicit\u00e9 as a cornerstone of French society, cites it several times in her book, which was born of her experiences with antisemitism and her evolution from previously keeping her Jewish identity private to now proudly acknowledging it in public.<\/p>\n \u201cIn July 2023, I was caricaturized and humiliated by a sinister Nazi website,\u201d her book begins. \u201cI had the choice \u2014 let it pass or react. I chose to retaliate and to make [the incident] known.\u201d<\/p>\n An extreme right-wing website had targeted Seban, showing a photo of her with antisemitic comments, including attacking her physical appearance: \u201cEven if you want to forget for a second that she\u2019s Jewish, her nose, in a very menacing way, won\u2019t allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuing in the foreword, Seban writes: \u201cThis pathetic, cowardly, antisemitic attack persuaded me to take on the fight that I was already carrying inside of me \u2014 the struggle against prejudice, discrimination and hate. Above all, it helped me to embrace and assert my Jewish identity without hiding it. This book tells the story of my journey.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Shannon Seban on the election trail in the Paris suburb of Val de Marne, June 2024. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n It also gives readers a window into the challenges facing Jews today in France, where they number around 450,000, constituting the world\u2019s largest Jewish community outside Israel and the United States. Like their counterparts in many countries, French Jews have experienced a dramatic rise in antisemitism in recent years. According to the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, the country\u2019s main Jewish organization, there were 3,246 recorded antisemitic actions and threats in 2023 and 2024, nearly triple the number in the previous two-year period.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up, I didn\u2019t attach much importance to my Jewish identity and largely hid it out of fear,\u201d says Seban. \u201cI didn\u2019t say it out loud because my parents had always told me religion should be kept at home.\u201d<\/p>\n A heartfelt cry<\/p>\n Speaking with great conviction, Seban switches easily between French and English. Minutes earlier, she arrived from the TV studio of CNews, irritated by what she called an antagonistic interview linked to her book.<\/p>\n \t Shannon Seban promotes her book in southwestern France, June 28, 2025. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n \u201cIn many ways, my book is a cri de coeur,\u201d says Seban, using the French term which literally means \u201ca cry from the heart,\u201d but is often translated as an \u201curgent, heartfelt appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I wrote is also a shout of alert and a shout of love for my country,\u201d Seban says. \u201cI\u2019m a proud French Jew, but I don\u2019t want to choose between being Jewish and being French, as reflected in the title of my book.\u201d<\/p>\n In \u201cFrench, Jewish and So What?\u201d written in the first-person in a clear, unpretentious style, Seban mixes the personal with salient facts about contemporary and historical France.<\/p>\n Born in Seine-Saint Denis, just northeast of Paris, Seban still lives in the working-class, multicultural suburb where she grew up with her two older brothers, her Moroccan-born mother and Algerian-born father. Home to many Muslim immigrants, the area has long been associated with crime, poverty and Islamism.<\/p>\n In last year\u2019s election, Seban, who is head of a local chapter of\u00a0 Macron\u2019s centrist Renaissance Party, finished second in the eight-person race, well behind the popular incumbent, Mathilde Panot, a senior member of the France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party. Like many French Jews, Seban considers Panot, her party and its leader, Jean-Luc Melanchon, antisemitic.<\/p>\n \u201cLa France Insoumise is instrumentalizing antisemitism,\u201d says Seban. \u201cAlthough they don\u2019t know much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they use it to hate Jews and to gain voters among the Muslim community. During my election campaign, I saw how they focused so much on Gaza and Palestine, and so little on education, security, health, or immigration. They\u2019re not serving the interests of French people, but rather the interests of Hamas and fueling antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n The topic is close to home for Seban, who becomes visibly upset while discussing the toxic hate, especially directed at Israel, where she has relatives, and which she\u2019s visited many times, most recently earlier this summer.<\/p>\n \u2018Antisemitism has become for many people not only normalized, but even worse, fashionable\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cAntisemitism now in France has new forms it never used to have,\u201d says Seban. \u201cAnti-Zionism has become the most common form, and it\u2019s not being punished. When anti-Zionism hides hate of Israel and denies its right to exist, it\u2019s a hatred of Jews and a form of antisemitism. Especially on social media, antisemitism has become for many people not only normalized, but even worse, fashionable.\u201d<\/p>\n If Seban bristles with disdain for the far-left La France Insoumise, she\u2019s equally critical of its far-right counterpart, the Rassemblement National (National Rally). Despite its antisemitic origins and former neo-Nazi ideology, the party has rebranded itself in recent years as pro-Israel and supportive of Jews, for whom it highlights its hardline position against immigration and Islamist ideology.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AP25191596898700-e1753470180333.jpg\")
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