A diplomatic incident between France and Israel disrupted French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot's visit to Jerusalem on Thursday when Israeli police entered “armed” et “without authorization”, according to him, on a religious site belonging to France.
Here's what we know.
A first incident before the arrival of the minister
According to an AFP journalist on site, Israeli police officers entered the grounds of the Eléona national domain, owned by France since the 19th century located on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city occupied and annexed by Israel since 1967.
Built on the cave known as “du Pater”, where Christ, according to Christian tradition, would have taught the Our Father (Pater noster, in Latin) to his disciples, it is one of the four French national domains in and near Jerusalem, with the Tomb of the Kings, the Basilica of Sainte-Anne and the ancient crusader commandery of Abu Gosh with their Romanesque churches.
The Eléona, next to which is a Carmelite convent also under French diplomatic protection, “is a holy place”, Father Laurent, rector of the Sainte-Anne basilica, explained to AFP. “Here in Israel, the holy places are particularly protected places. We don't enter with weapons. Furthermore, it is a French domain,” he added.
Jean-Noël Barrot criticizes an “unacceptable situation”
“This attack on the integrity of an area placed under the responsibility of France is likely to weaken the links that I had come to cultivate with Israel, at a time when we all need to advance the region on the path of peace”, denounced Jean-Noël Barrot in front of the press, as shown in this video published by BFM TV on the social network X.
Criticizing a “unacceptable situation”, the minister ultimately decided not to enter this pilgrimage site. “The domain of Eléona […] is an area which has not only belonged to France for more than 150 years, but whose security France ensures,” underlined the minister.
The Israeli ambassador in Paris will be summoned “in the coming days” to discuss this incident, announced the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
French gendarme thrown to the ground in second incident
Just after the minister's departure, a new incident involved Israeli police officers in uniform and two French gendarmes in civilian clothes, noted the AFP journalist. During a very tense exchange, Israeli police officers grabbed one of the gendarmes, throwing him to the ground before taking him into a police car. The gendarme, who had identified himself, yelled several times “Don’t touch me!” “, according to this journalist.
The two gendarmes were then released, a police official explaining that they were not in uniform and had not shown their diplomatic card. “They know that we work at the French consulate general,” replied one of the two consulate agents, pointing to the police officers who had arrested him.
The Quai d'Orsay contradicts the explanations of the Israeli authorities
Regarding the second incident, Israeli police said in a statement that “two individuals, initially unidentified” had “denied entry to the site to Israeli agents responsible for the minister’s security.” French diplomatic sources, cited by AFP, for their part castigated “the false allegations disseminated by the Israeli authorities”.
For its part, Israeli diplomacy assured that security issues had been “clarified” in advance with the French Embassy in Tel Aviv. The presence of Israeli security personnel was intended to “objective of guaranteeing (the) security” by Jean-Noël Barrot, assured the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
An assertion denied by French diplomatic sources who affirm that“on numerous occasions before the visit” it had been indicated “that no Israeli armed security would be allowed on the site.”
Political reactions in France, mainly on the left
Jean-Luc Mélenchon attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “In Jerusalem, Netanyahu has nothing to do in the territory under French responsibility,” wrote the leader of La France insoumise on X. His troops in the Assembly had reacted a little earlier by denouncing a “violation of French sovereignty”, calling not to “accept the government’s repeated acts of arrogance” Israeli “with regard to France”.
The head of the French Communist Party Fabien Roussel insisted that “France cannot be humiliated like this”. “When we see how the Israeli police treat French gendarmes, we understand better how they treat the Palestinians! » he said to X.
Outside of the left, a few other voices came forward. Renaissance MP Brigitte Klinkert notably estimated on X that the minister had “was right” not to go to Eléona. “It is inconceivable that our diplomatic personnel would be arrested in this way,” she wrote.
The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and its president LR Cédric Perrin, for their part, denounced in a press release a “unacceptable arrest”, Who “fuels tensions in a context which nevertheless calls for appeasement and dialogue”.
Incidents during visits by Macron in 2020 and Chirac in 1996
On January 22, 2020, the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron was also marked by a stampede in front of the Sainte-Anne basilica. The president had said in English to an Israeli police officer “I don’t like what you did in front of me.”
The best-known incident remains that of 1996, when President Jacques Chirac also lost his temper against Israeli soldiers who surrounded him too closely by throwing « Do you want me to go back to my plane ? » (“Do you want me to get back on my plane?”), before demanding that the soldiers leave the Sainte-Anne domain.
