France bans Israeli companies from exhibiting their products at the Euronaval trade show in Paris next month.
Israeli delegations are allowed to visit the fair.
The decision, which comes from the French government, concerns seven companies.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called the decision a “disgrace” and warned that it played into the hands of Israel’s enemies. “France is pursuing a hostile policy against the Jewish people,” Gallant writes on X.
In June, France also banned Israeli companies from accessing a defense exhibition.
The French Defense Ministry had said that Israeli participation in the fair would not be consistent with Macron’s call for Israel to stop the Rafah offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Strained relationship
Relations between Macron and Prime Minister Netanyahu appear to have cooled considerably in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Macron called for an end to arms deliveries to Israel.
France is unhappy that Israel last month rejected a US-French proposal for a temporary truce with Hezbollah, even though it was counting on Israel’s agreement. Yesterday, in response to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, Macron said Netanyahu should not forget that Israel owed its creation to a UN decision in 1947.
Netanyahu, in “Reminding the French president indicated that the State of Israel was not created by a decision of the UN, but by the victory won in the war of independence,” wrote the office of the Prime Minister on X.
The Israeli PM forgets to indicate that the “victory of independence” was only possible thanks to the weapons delivered mainly by the United States of America.
France
