After quitting the Gaza flotilla on September 19, La France Insoumise MP Thomas Portes flew to Lebanon and met with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members.
Portes, who is known for his strong anti-Israel stance, was aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza for several days before leaving for “personal reasons and family emergencies.” He tweeted that his “commitment to the respect of the rights of the Palestinian people remains full and complete.”
However, on Sunday, French Jewish politician Shannon Seban drew attention to the fact that Portes was spotted in Lebanon just a few days later, having meetings with representatives of the PFLP.
Among those he met with were Salah Hamouri – who was imprisoned in Israel for attempting to assassinate a rabbi and was only released as part of the December 2011 deal to free Gilad Schalit – and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who was recently released from a French prison after serving 40 years for complicity in the assassination of American and Israeli diplomats.
Hamouri was only released in exchange for the return of Gilad Schalit in December 2011.
Portes did not conceal his meeting with PFLP members and instead dedicated a whole X/Twitter post to it on September 26, including pictures and videos from his meeting with PFLP politburo leader Marwan Abdel-Al at the Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut.
Portes quoted the representatives as saying, “It is not the occupier who will grant us a state, but the resistance and the sacrifices that will wrest it from them. We rely first on our own people, then on our allies, and also on the peoples of the world who are mobilizing against their complicit governments.”
"This trip to Lebanon has nothing of a 'personal' or 'private' visit"
“I am ashamed that my department of Seine-Saint-Denis is represented by a deputy who boasts about his ties to terrorists,” wrote Seban. “This trip to Lebanon has nothing of a “personal” or “private” visit: it is an assumed political trip, marked by meetings with figures of international terrorism. Unacceptable.”
It is worth noting that the PFLP is proscribed as a terrorist group in the United States, Japan, Canada, and the European Union.
Portes has a history of problematic statements, including claiming Israel voluntarily enabled October 7 to justify the “genocide of the Palestinian people” and saying in summer 2024 that “Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris.”