The President of the Senate criticized the Head of State who, according to participants in the recent Council of Ministers, recalled that Benjamin Netanyahu “must not forget that his country was created by a UN decision.”
Published on 17/10/2024 09:41
Reading time: 2min
“To doubt the existence of Israel touches on fundamental questions for me.” During an interview with CNews and Europe 1, Thursday October 17,he President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, criticized the comments attributed to Emmanuel Macron on the birth of the State of Israel. “I was stunned, he saidit is first of all a misunderstanding of the history of the birth of the State of Israel.”
According to participants in the Council of Ministers who reported these remarks to France Télévisions, the President of the Republic affirmed that Benjamin Netanyahu should not “not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN”. The President of the Republic was referring to the vote, in November 1947, by the General Assembly of the United Nations, on the plan to divide Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
The President of the Senate responds that the birth of Israel “did not come as a notarial act only noted by the UN”. “Did Emmanuel Macron remember the Balfour declaration [lettre signée par le ministre des Affaires étrangères britannique en 1917] ? Was he aware of what happened during the Holocaust and after the Holocaust?”he got carried away.
For Gérard Larcher, there is “like a doubt” on the fact that Emmanuel Macron could question the legitimacy of the existence of the Hebrew State. “I don’t suspect him of anything, I say that Israel’s right to exist is neither debatable nor negotiable”he added again.
The remarks attributed to the French head of state provoked strong reactions, even within his own camp in the National Assembly. For its part, Crif mentioned “a mistake that is both historical and political“.
