Major diplomatic incident between France and Israel on Thursday November 7. In a scene filmed by RFI, Israeli police arrested two French gendarmes who accompanied the visit to Jerusalem by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. A few hours after the incident, the two gendarmes were released. France announced that it would summon the Israeli ambassador to Paris.
The incident took place in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city occupied and annexed by Israeland more precisely in Eléona, one of the French estates in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives. Three armed Israeli police officers illegally entered the grounds of the Christian religious site, also called the Pater Noster. It is one of France’s four national domains in Jerusalem. At the entrance, the tricolor flag flies.
Israeli police, who are not allowed to be there, insisted on protecting the French delegation visiting the site. Two French gendarmes asked the Israeli police to come out.
Then arrived the head of diplomacy françaisewho initially refused to enter the location in question because Israeli police had entered without permission and were armed. Jean-Noël Barrot spoke immediately at the microphone of Sami Boukhelifa for RFI. He denounced a “ unacceptable situation » :
I will not enter the Eleona grounds today because Israeli security forces entered there armed [sic]without first obtaining authorization from France and without agreeing to leave. I want to say it very firmly and very seriously: this situation is unacceptable. And 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 move the region forward on the path of peace.
The minister then left. In the process, the Israeli police violently arrested the two gendarmes. One of them repeatedly shouted “ Don’t touch me! », while he was apprehended.
« This incident will not stop there »
It is therefore a major diplomatic incident, which recalls the anger of French presidents Emmanuel Macron in 2020 and Jacques Chirac in 1996, when the two presidents raised their voices in front of Israeli police officers. This happened at the time at another French-run estate, St. Anne’s Church, in the Old City of Jerusalem.
A few hours after the incident, the two French gendarmes were released. French diplomacy announced that “ the Israeli ambassador to France will be summoned to the ministry [des Affaires étrangères] in the coming days » to protest against this entry « army » et « without permission “. The ministry hammered home Jean-Noël Barrot’s remarks, affirming that the presence of Israeli security forces on this pilgrimage site as well as the brief arrest of two French gendarmes were “not not acceptable ».
Israeli diplomacy, for its part, assured that security issues had been “ clarified » in advance with the French embassy in Tel Aviv, and that the Israeli police only had to “ objective of guaranteeing safety » by Jean-Noël Barrot. A French diplomatic source, contacted by RFI on the evening of November 7, assured that “ this incident will not stop there, especially since it is aggravated by the false allegations disseminated by the Israeli authorities ».
Rfi
Swiss
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