French judges have issued legal summons for two French-Israeli activists, accusing them of “complicity in genocide” and “incitement to genocide” after they were involved in protests against the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
One of the activists was identified as Nili Kupfer-Naouri, a French-Israeli lawyer and the founder of the charity Israel Is Forever, which states its mission as the “mobilization of French-speaking Zionist force.” The other is Rachel Touitou, spokesperson for the organization Tzav 9, which campaigns against sending humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
The summons was first issued in August 2025 by the Crimes Against Humanity Division of the Paris Judicial Court, following a complaint filed in November 2024 by the French Jewish Union for Peace, together with Urgence Palestine and the NIDAL association. The complaint was later joined by the FIDH, Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
A legal summons in France is not the same as an arrest warrant. A legal summons is an official notification requiring a person to appear before a judge, investigator, or at a police station on a specific date and time. The person is legally obligated to attend; it does not mean they are under arrest at that moment. Ignoring a summons, however, will likely lead to the issuance of an arrest warrant.
'Just a provocation'
Touitou told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that she first learned of the complaint against her last May but was told it would likely never amount to any warrant or summons and was just a provocation from pro-Palestinian French organizations.
“I was told that to keep it under the radar, to just wait and see it, because again, factually speaking, I live in a democratic country, and, like every Israeli after October 7, we felt very helpless with the hostages situation and with Gaza, with sending our troops in, which are our brothers and our cousins and family members and so on. And as an Israeli, I wanted to help and to do something.”
Touitou said when she had heard from a former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head that up to 70% of humanitarian aid going into Gaza was falling into the hands of Hamas, she knew she had to do something.
“We were helping Hamas to pursue this war against our own soldiers. They don’t feed our hostages. So I used my democratic rights, my basic right to take a flag, an Israeli flag, and to protest.
“So if waving an Israeli flag is a war crime, then where are we, you know?”
Touitou believes the summons is politically motivated.
As of Tuesday, she has still heard nothing official from French authorities or from an embassy. Touitou received a tip-off from a journalist and then involved her lawyer, Gilles William Goldnadel.
Touitou does not live in France and therefore won’t be appearing in front of the judge in the next 24 hours.
“I think the most important thing to note is that I’m merely a pawn. I’m a civilian. I’m French-Israeli. It gives the courts the right to prosecute me, or to question me, or to do whatever they want to do, as I am a French citizen and I have a passport.
“I’m the weakest link of the pyramid because what they want, what they truly want, [these pro-Palestinian organizations] is the IDF soldiers. And there are approximately 4,000, if not even more, French-Israeli soldiers who served in the army during the war. That’s their target.”
“And if that happens, if I fall for waving a flag and demonstrating in a democratic country, then the way it’s paved for the IDF soldiers, it’s going to be an open bar for them. This is way bigger than me.”
“It’s like killing the messenger.”
Kupfer-Naouri agreed, telling the Post that the summons set a dangerous precedent for French soldiers.
“If [this happened to me], as a civilian who protested peacefully, what about our soldiers that fought? Soldiers with French citizenship will not be able to go to France to visit their families.”
“My only crime was standing physically to block aid trucks destined for Hamas. It was a political protest, protected in a democratic system.”
Kupfer-Naouri said she is “convinced all Jews must make Aliyah now,” as “France is not a safe state now for the Jews.”
Despite the summons, she told the Post she is proud of her activism. “Israel has many military fronts and also the front of the truth. I’m proud to be in this battle.”
'A real scandal'
Touitou’s lawyer, Gille William Goldnadel, told the Post that the case is “a real scandal.” Firstly, because it suggests (as mentioned) that the French justice system “dares to use the charge of genocide,” something which no international court has convicted Israel of.
“So the fact that the French justice system is using genocide as a legal concept is the first scandal.”
And secondly, because the French justice system accepted the complaint from the association Al-Haq, which is considered by the US and Israel to be an extremist organization.
“And as if that were not enough, all the complaints we have filed in France against the antisemitic party Les Insoumis for the glorification of terrorism, which is a standard criminal offense, have gone completely unanswered,” he continued.
“So truly, in my entire career as a lawyer, I do not recall having ever seen something this scandalous.”
While Goldnadel called the case “legally ridiculous,” he did acknowledge the fact that Touitou (and Kupfer-Naouri) is now unable to travel to France without risking arrest.
Nevertheless, on the substance of the case, Goldnadel said he is not worried; “It is so ridiculous that I fear nothing,” he told the Post.