On the eve of their official meeting, Wednesday May 22 in the morning in Paris, the French and Israeli foreign ministers, Stéphane Séjourné and Israel Katz, were unable to avoid the latest point of tension between the two countries: the France’s reaction to the request of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Monday, to issue arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity – as well as against three Hamas officials, including the head of the organization, Yahya Sinouar.
Faced with this unprecedented approach, which provoked the strongest criticism in Israel and the United States, Paris stressed “independence” of the ICC, recalling having “sentenced from October 7 [2023] the anti-Semitic massacres perpetrated by Hamas » and alerted “for many months on the imperative of strict respect for international humanitarian law and on the unacceptable nature of civilian losses in the Gaza Strip and insufficient humanitarian access”.
Tuesday, before the National Assembly, Stéphane Séjourné however clarified: “These simultaneous requests for arrest warrants must not create equivalence between Hamas and Israel,” while ensuring that “ICC judges must now rule on the issuance of these warrants (…) independently “.
“The Attorney General’s proposal is shameful”
This clarification, which the minister was to reiterate to his counterpart, Israel Katz, on Wednesday, did not seem sufficient either to the Israeli authorities or to the representatives of the French Jewish community. During the celebration, Tuesday, in Paris, of the 76e anniversary of the creation of Israel and the 75e anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and the Hebrew State, Mr. Katz urged Mr. Séjourné to affirm “loud and clear that the Attorney General’s proposal is shameful, and therefore unacceptable for [lui] and for the French government.
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Shortly before, the French minister had affirmed, in front of several hundred people from the Jewish community and international diplomats, that France “stood with Israel” causing a few doubtful coughs in the audience. For Joël Mergui, president of the Consistory of Paris, “Paris’s reaction to the ICC mandates is disappointing and worries the Jews of France”, “in contradiction” with the fight against anti-Semitism that France is leading. Many guests at this evening also judged the request for arrest warrants against Israeli officials “dangerous”, “stupid”, unsuitable for the leaders of a “democratic country with a functioning judicial system”. Earlier in the day, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France deplored ” that [son] country has chosen on this subject to dissociate itself from [ses] natural allies that are the great Western democracies”.
