“Farewell to the anti-Semitic Left”. Jean Quatremer’s resignation from *Libération*

Jean Quatremer, a veteran journalist at Libération, was summoned to appear before his newspaper’s human resources department in April. Numerous Libé staff members had held a meeting to express their “discomfort and distress” caused by his pro-Israel comments on social media. They had called for disciplinary action, arguing that “freedom of expression cannot be a Trojan horse for racism”. A few weeks ago, Quatremer received a statement from the editorial board distancing itself from its long-standing Brussels correspondent. This week, Quatremer is leaving the newspaper where he has worked since 1984: “Islamo-leftism and wokism have won”.

“Over the past three years, his relations with part of the editorial team had deteriorated,” admitted the newspaper founded by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July. Quatremer traces the escalation of tensions back to 7 October 2023. The editors’ association took a stand against him, whilst management backed him. In the background lay the conflict between the two left-wing factions: the Social Democrats and Mélenchon’s Insoumis. “The row would have been fierce in the *Libération* of the 1990s, but in the *Libération* of 2026, there is no longer any debate,” writes Quatremer.

“I defend the view that Israel is a democracy,” writes Quatremer. “I note that there is still no evidence of genocide in Gaza. I believe we can speak quite plainly of Islamic anti-Semitism. If I am wrong, anyone at Libération could have asked for space to try to prove it. No one did.”

The resignation letter opens with ‘Farewell, Libé!’. I confess, writes Quatremer, ‘I am a libertarian and, like every libertarian, a provocateur. Neither God nor master. That is precisely why I chose Libé in 1984. A free, eccentric, dissident, non-conformist newspaper. We were afraid of nothing and, above all, not of those who didn’t share our views; on the contrary, we sought confrontation with them. It was forbidden to forbid. But all good things must come to an end.”

Now, “for fear of being accused of ‘Islamophobia’ or neo-colonialism”, a section of the political and media left tolerates those within its ranks who preach hatred. “They demonstrate outside synagogues; intellectuals, artists, scientists and journalists are barred from speaking because they are Jewish and therefore Zionists and therefore ‘genocidal’,” writes Quatremer. “Anyone – Jewish or not – who does not toe this line is branded a fascist, in the name of an anti-fascism that, in its violence – sometimes deadly – bears a striking resemblance to the very thing it claims to combat. This new left wallows in anti-Semitism.” It is editorial and intellectual Stalinism. “Just as in the good old days of the USSR and the Comintern, the thought police instil ideological terror through anathemas, slanderous accusations and the culture of erasure. Anyone who accuses me of racism, of Islamophobia – an accusation that kills only those who are accused of it – and of fascism is either an idiot or a bastard, or both.”

And so, farewell. “I am reclaiming my freedom, for it is my most precious possession. I have no intention of justifying myself to the petty cliques of Moscow-sur-Seine. Do not forget that you recognise freedom by the sound it makes as it slips away.” The knitters are now knitting the new crimes of opinion with threads of poisonous ink.