AFPS files a criminal complaint for war crimes, complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to settlement activity in the West Bank

On 22 September 2025, the Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), represented by the law firms DEMAIN and ALEKTO, filed a criminal complaint against French-Israeli settlers and against persons unknown, in respect of serious acts which may constitute war crimes, complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed against the Palestinian population of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The complaint is set against a long-documented background: since 1967, UN bodies and NGOs have consistently denounced the serious and systematic violations of international law arising from the occupation, settlement and annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In its Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice concluded, inter alia, that Israel's continued presence in that territory and its settlement regime are unlawful; that Israel is under an obligation to cease all new settlement activity immediately, to dismantle the unlawful settlements and to make reparation for the damage caused; and that Israel maintains a system of discriminatory laws and measures amounting to racial segregation and apartheid. Resolution ES-10/24, adopted on 18 September 2024 by the United Nations General Assembly with the votes of 124 States, including France, set 18 September 2025 as the deadline for the definitive cessation of these unlawful practices. To date, the AFPS notes that nothing has been undertaken to that end.

The acts complained of concern the complicity of French-Israeli settlers in the war crime of the transfer, by the occupying power, of part of its own civilian population into the occupied territory (Article 461-26 of the French Criminal Code) and in the crimes against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer, persecution and acts of segregation (Article 212-1(4), (8) and (10) of the French Criminal Code), as well as the commission of, and complicity in, the war crime of theft, extortion and destruction of the property of the civilian population (Article 461-16 of the French Criminal Code).

Against this background, it falls to the French criminal courts to make full use of their jurisdiction to investigate, prosecute and try any French national who has perpetrated, or been complicit in, crimes linked to settlement activity.

The press release of 22 September 2025 is reproduced in full below: urlr.me/HtkPA7

For further information, please contact:
Sarah SAMEUR, Avocate à la Cour (Lawyer at the Paris Bar) – DEMAIN | Law Firm (cabinet@demain-avocat.com)
Nino ARNAUD and Foucauld PRACHE, Avocats à la Cour (Lawyers at the Paris Bar) – ALEKTO Avocats (contact@alekto-avocats.com)

Photo credit: In the occupied West Bank, south of Hebron, Israeli settlers demolish a Palestinian house and a carpentry workshop, 8 June.                                      © Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua/ABACAPRESS.COM