
The French president is "inciting anti-Semitism" in his country by calling for international recognition of the state of Palestine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
"I call on you to replace weakness with action, calm with will, and to do so before a specific date: the Jewish New Year, September 23, 2025," reads this official letter to Emmanuel Macron, signed by Netanyahu and dated August 17.
"I am concerned about the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in France and the lack of decisive action by your government to combat it. In recent years, anti-Semitism has devastated French cities. After your public statements against Israel and after you announced the recognition of a Palestinian state, it has increased," the letter continues.
Netanyahu claims that "after Hamas's savage attack on the Israeli people on October 7, 2023, pro-Hamas extremists and left-wing radicals launched a campaign of intimidation, vandalism and violence against Jews across Europe", a campaign that "intensified in France" under Macron's presidency. It documents several recent incidents, such as the looting of the entrance to the offices of the El Al airline in Paris, the attack on a Jew in Livry-Gargan, and the rabbis who were "attacked on the streets of Paris".
"These incidents are not isolated. They are a wound," he emphasized. According to the Israeli prime minister, France's goal of recognizing a Palestinian state "rewards Hamas' terror, reinforces Hamas' refusal to release hostages, encourages those who threaten French Jews, and incites hatred against Jews that lurks in your streets."
On the other hand, Netanyahu praises US President Donald Trump for the "war" he is waging against anti-Semitic crimes and "to protect American Jews".
"President Macron, anti-Semitism is a cancer. It multiplies when leaders are silent. He retreats when leaders act. "I call on you to replace weakness with action, appeasement with will, before a clear date: the Jewish New Year, September 23, 2025," the Israeli prime minister concludes. At the end of May, Macron announced that in September France would recognize the state of Palestine, on the occasion of the 80th UN General Assembly in New York.