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Macron Pushes Back Against Netanyahu’s Claim France Inflamed Antisemitism Through Palestinian State Recognition
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference in Paris, France, June 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
French President Emmanuel Macron has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s argument connecting a rise in hate against France’s Jewish community with the recent decision by Paris to recognize a Palestinian state.
“The analysis that France’s decision to recognize the state of Palestine in September explains the rise in antisemitic violence in France is erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered,” Macron’s office said in a statement on Tuesday, insisting that “the current period calls for seriousness and responsibility, not generalization and manipulation.”
The French leader’s office added that “violence against the Jewish community is unacceptable” and called for all local and regional governments in the country to “take the strongest possible action against the perpetrators of antisemitic acts.”
Netanyahu on Sunday sent a letter to Macron in which he wrote that “your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire.” He warned that “it is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas’s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace French Jews, and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.”
The letter came a few weeks after Macron in late July announced that France will recognize a Palestinian state and issue a formal statement at the United Nations General Assembly in September as part of its “commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia all announced their own plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the following days.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has celebrated the Western countries for their decisions. Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, for example, praised the plans to recognize a Palestinian state as “the fruits of Oct. 7,” citing the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as the reason for increasing Western support.
“As [US President Donald] Trump has shown, antisemitism can and must be confronted. The president is protecting the civil rights of American Jews, enforcing the law, protecting public order and prosecuting antisemitic crimes,” Netanyahu wrote in his letter. “He has deported Hamas sympathizers and revoked the visas of foreign students who incite violence against Jews.”
France has seen an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 invasion of the Jewish state, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
The total number of antisemitic outrages in 2024 — 1,570 — was a slight dip from 2023’s record total of 1,676, but it marked a striking increase from the 436 antisemitic acts recorded in 2022, according to a report by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), the main representative body of French Jews.
“Antisemitism is a cancer,” Netanyahu warned Macron in his letter. “It spreads when leaders stay silent. It retreats when leaders act. I call upon you to replace weakness with action, appeasement with resolve, and to do so by a clear date: the Jewish New Year, Sept. 23, 2025. History will not forgive hesitation. It will honor action.”
Benjamin Haddad, who serves as France’s Minister Delegate for European Affairs, said in response to Netanyahu that “France has no lessons to learn in the fight against antisemitism.”
Last week, vandals targeted a tree planted to memorialize Ilan Halimi, a Jew who was kidnapped and tortured to death in France in 2006.
“Cutting down the tree honoring Ilan Halimi is an attempt to kill him a second time. It will not succeed: the Nation will not forget this child of France who died because he was Jewish,” Macron posted Friday on X. “All means are being deployed to punish this act of hatred. In the face of antisemitism: the Republic, always uncompromising.”
On Aug. 7, employees of Israeli airline El Al discovered red paint splashed all over the doors of their Paris office and graffiti of such slogans as “Palestine will live, Palestine will win,” “To hell with Zionism,” and “Genocidal airline El Al.”
This prompted the airline to pull all its staff from the country and issue a statement saying, “El Al takes the incident very seriously and is actively cooperating with the authorities, adhering to the guidance of officials in both France and Israel. The airline proudly displays the Israeli flag on its planes and strongly condemns all forms of violence, particularly antisemitism.”
On March 13, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy released an analysis of hate against Jews in France by historian Marc Knobel, an associate researcher at the Jonathas Institute in Brussels and author of Cyberhate: Propaganda and Antisemitism on the Internet. He found a link between conflict in the Middle East and antisemitism in France.
“A recurring correlation emerges between peaks in antisemitic acts in France and periods of tension in the Middle East, particularly visible in the years 2000, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2023, and 2024,” Knobel wrote. “What stands out in 2025 is the prevalence of antisemitism linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.”
Knobel urged that “it is essential that politicians are aware of the impact of their words on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; irresponsible and violent speeches by the radical left can exacerbate tensions and fuel antisemitism in our country.”
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.