The visit to Jerusalem by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was marked Thursday by a diplomatic incident when Israeli police entered “armed” and “without authorization,” according to the minister, on a site belonging to France.
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.
Criticizing an “unacceptable situation”, the minister finally decided not to enter this pilgrimage site.
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“I will not enter the Eléona estate today, because the Israeli security forces entered with weapons, without prior authorization from France, without agreeing to leave today,” Barrot said on the places.
“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 to peace,” he stressed.
” Integrity “
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 estate (…) is an estate which has not only belonged to France for more than 150 years, but whose security and maintenance France ensures with enormous care,” said the minister.
The Eléona, next to which there 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.
France claims this sanctuary on the Mount of Olives as its territory under international treaties.
In this image taken from an AFPTV video, Israeli police arrest a French gendarme at the Eleona estate in Jerusalem, November 7, 2024. (Credit: Chloe ROUVEYROLLES-BAZIRE / AFP)
Israeli ambassador summoned
The Israeli ambassador in Paris will be summoned “in the coming days” to discuss this incident, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
For its part, Israeli diplomacy assured that security questions had been “clarified” in advance with the French embassy in Tel Aviv.
The presence of Israeli security personnel was “aimed at guaranteeing (the) security” of Mr. 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 authorized on the site”.
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, shouted 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 Israeli police said in a statement that “two initially unidentified individuals” had “refused entry to the site to Israeli agents responsible for the minister’s security.”
French diplomatic sources, for their part, castigated “the false allegations disseminated by the Israeli authorities”.
“These actions are unacceptable,” lamented a press release from the Quai d’Orsay. “France condemns them all the more vigorously as they occur while it is deploying all possible efforts to contribute to the de-escalation of violence in the region. »
The Israeli Foreign Ministry, for its part, blamed the two French diplomats. “Any minister from a foreign country on an official visit to Israel is accompanied by state security, which follows all his movements,” the ministry said. Barrot’s visit to the church was under the protection of Israeli security, “in accordance with prior discussions with the French Embassy in Israel.”
“During the visit, an argument broke out between Israeli security forces and two French security agents who refused to identify themselves,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. “The two agents were arrested by the police and released immediately after identifying themselves as diplomats. »
The place had already been the subject of diplomatic incidents in the past.
The event also recalls other facts: 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 said in English to an Israeli police officer: “I don’t like what you did in front of me.”
The most famous incident remains that of 1996, when President Jacques Chirac also lost his temper against Israeli soldiers who were surrounding him too closely, saying: “Do you want me to go back to my plane? » (“Do you want me to get back on board my plane?”), before demanding that the soldiers leave the Sainte-Anne area.
The French left is furious
Political reactions mainly came from the left, although a few other voices came forward.
LFI deputies on Thursday described the diplomatic incident during the visit to Jerusalem by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot as an act of “unacceptable intimidation”, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon attacking the Israeli Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In Jerusalem, Netanyahu has nothing to do in the territory under the responsibility of France,” the leader of La France insoumise wrote on X.
His troops in the Assembly had reacted a little earlier by denouncing a “violation of French sovereignty”, calling not to “accept the repeated acts of arrogance of the” Israeli “government 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.
Renaissance MP Brigitte Klinkert notably estimated on X that the minister was “right” not to go to the 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 an “unacceptable arrest”, which “fuels tensions in a context which nevertheless calls for appeasement and dialogue”.
A “credible and responsible” plan for the post-war period
Before these facts on Thursday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, and the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, presented to Jean-Noël Barrot, Israel’s demands in the current conflicts in the Middle East, according to a press release from French press.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in front of the Old City of Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives, during his visit to Jerusalem, November 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
According to his office, Barrot expressed concerns about Israeli legislation aimed at curtailing UNRWA activities in the Gaza Strip. He also called for the establishment of a “credible and responsible” post-war plan, which would include the return of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Gaza.
Both sides agreed on the need for reforms within the PA, but Barrot stressed the security risks inherent in any attempt to undermine the PA economy, according to France.
The two parties also agreed, according to France, on the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and continuing to destabilize the region.
