It is an incident which occurs in a phase of diplomatic tension between France and Israel, linked to the war in Gaza. Thursday, November 7, the visit to Jerusalem of French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was disrupted when Israeli police entered “armed” and “without authorization”, according to him, on a religious site belonging to France. Two French gendarmes were also arrested.
Israeli police enter French property
According to an AFP journalist on site, Israeli police officers entered the grounds of the Eléona national estate. It is a property of France since the 19th century located on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city occupied and annexed by Israel since 1967. Criticizing an “unacceptable situation”, Jean-Noël Barrot finally decided not to enter this pilgrimage site. “Without having been authorized, Israeli security entered this place armed. The minister did not wish to go to the area under these conditions,” the Quai d’Orsay said in a press release after this incident.
“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”, Jean-Noël Barrot also denounced to the press. “The domain of Eléona […] is an area which not only has belonged to France for more than 150 years, but whose security France ensures”, underlined the minister. The Eléona, next to which 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.
For its part, Israeli diplomacy assured that security issues had been “clarified in advance during preparatory discussions with the French embassy in Israel”. The presence of Israeli security personnel had the “objective of guaranteeing (the) security” of Jean-Noël Barrot, assured the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release. This assertion was denied by French diplomatic sources who assured that “on numerous occasions before the visit” it had been indicated “that no Israeli armed security would be authorized on the site”.
Two French gendarmes arrested
Just after the departure of Jean-Noël Barrot, 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, yelled several times “Don’t touch me!”, according to this journalist. The two gendarmes were then released, “after intervention by the minister”, according to the Quai d’Orsay. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the arrest of “two staff from the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem” by Israeli security “even though they are agents with diplomatic status”.
An Israeli police official explained that they were not in uniform and had not shown their diplomatic cards. “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 individuals, initially unidentified” 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”.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that France would summon “in the coming days” the Israeli ambassador in Paris to protest against the entry of the “armed” and “without authorization” Israeli police into French national property in Jerusalem. France condemns these actions “with all the more vigor as they take place in a context where it is doing everything possible to work towards the de-escalation of violence in the region”, adds the Quai d’Orsay in its press release.
Unanimous convictions
LFI deputies on Thursday described this diplomatic incident as an act of “unacceptable intimidation”. “In Jerusalem, Benyamin Netanyahu has nothing to do in the territory under the responsibility of France,” wrote the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the social network His troops in the National 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 towards France”.
The head of the French Communist Party Fabien Roussel insisted that France could not “be humiliated like this”. “When we see how the Israeli police treat French gendarmes, we understand better how they treat the Palestinians!” he said on X. The Renaissance MP Brigitte Klinkert, for her part, notably estimated on “It is inconceivable that our diplomatic personnel would be arrested in this way,” she wrote.
The Senate Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and its president, the Republicans Cédric Perrin, for their part denounced in a press release “illegal, unacceptable actions” which “constitute a challenge to the centuries-old and fully recognized presence of France in these places, of which it ensures the maintenance”. “They fuel tensions in a context which nevertheless calls for appeasement and dialogue,” regrets this commission.