France will summon “in the coming days” the Israeli ambassador in Paris to protest against the entry of the Israeli police “armed” and “without authorization” into a French national property in Jerusalem, Éléona, which the head of French diplomacy was preparing to visit on Thursday November 7.
Jean-Noël Barrot denounced an “unacceptable situation” and refused to enter Éléona, a pilgrimage site belonging to the French national domain in the Holy Land, while the Israeli police arrested two French gendarmes on the spot, noted a journalist of the AFP.
“I'm not going in […] today, because the Israeli security forces entered there in an armed manner, without first obtaining authorization from France and without agreeing to leave,” he told the press.
“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.
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 ensuring [la] 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 authorized on the site”.
– Incident with Israeli police –
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!”
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.
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”.
– Four French national domains –
The Eleona, within which there is a Benedictine monastery, is 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 grotto known as “du Pater”, where Christ is said to have taught the prayer of the Pater to his disciples, it is one of the four French national estates in and near Jerusalem, with the Tomb of the Kings, the Basilica of Saint Anne and the the ancient crusader commandery of Abu Gosh with their Romanesque churches.
“The domain of Éléona […] is an area which not only has belonged to France for more than 150 years, but whose security and maintenance France ensures with enormous care”, affirmed the minister. “The integrity of the four areas for which France has the responsibility here in Jerusalem must be respected,” he insisted.
On January 22, 20202, 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 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.
AFP
World News, AFP, Israel, France
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