PARIS: France on Tuesday slammed as \u201cabject\u201d and \u201cerroneous\u201d an accusation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s move to recognize a Palestinian state was fueling antisemitism in his country.<\/p>\n
France \u201cprotects and will always protect its Jewish citizens,\u201d Macron\u2019s office said, adding that a letter from Netanyahu containing his allegation \u201cwill not go unanswered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a time for seriousness and responsibility, not for conflation and manipulation,\u201d the French presidency added.<\/p>\n
Last month, Macron said France would formally recognize a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September, the first G7 country to do so.<\/p>\n
The move drew a swift rebuke from Israel. In a letter sent to Macron, seen by AFP, Netanyahu claimed that antisemitism had \u201csurged\u201d in France following the announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire. It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas\u2019s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace French Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets,\u201d Netanyahu wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n
France is among at least 145 of the 193 UN members that now recognize or plan to recognize a Palestinian state, according to an AFP tally.<\/p>\n
Australia joined the list earlier this month, announcing its intention to recognize a Palestinian state in September.<\/p>\n
\u201cViolence against the (French) Jewish community is intolerable,\u201d the French presidency said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why, beyond criminal convictions, the president has systematically required all his governments since 2017 \u2014 and even more so since the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023 \u2014 to show the strongest action against perpetrators of antisemitic acts,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Macron\u2019s minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, separately said in reaction to Netanyahu\u2019s letter that France has \u201cno lessons to learn in the fight against antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue \u201cwhich is poisoning our European societies\u201d must not be \u201cexploited,\u201d Haddad added.<\/p>\n
France is home to Europe\u2019s biggest Jewish community.<\/p>\n
Reported antisemitic acts in France surged from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, before dipping to 1,570 last year, according to the interior ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS: France on Tuesday slammed as \u201cabject\u201d and \u201cerroneous\u201d an accusation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s move to recognize a Palestinian state was fueling antisemitism in his country. France \u201cprotects and will always protect its Jewish citizens,\u201d Macron\u2019s office said, adding that a letter from Netanyahu containing his allegation \u201cwill …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":85579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85588,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85568\/revisions\/85588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}