Already inflamed, the tone rose again on Tuesday October 15 between the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with a new very firm exchange which this time focused on the role of the United Nations in the creation of the State of Israel.
“Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a UN decision,” launched Emmanuel Macron during the Council of Ministers, according to comments reported by participants. A reference to Resolution 181 adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly, providing for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
This new declaration marks a culmination in the slow disunity between the two heads of state, following several heated exchanges via media concerning Israeli action in the Middle East. A look back at two weeks of diplomatic tensions.
Lack of truces, criticism of arms deliveries
Let’s go back to the origins of this verbal escalation. After multiple calls from Paris for a ceasefire in both Gaza and Lebanon, systematically refused by Israel, the main exchange of arms between Emmanuel Macron and Benjamin Netanyahu focused on deliveries of weapons to the Israeli army.
On October 5, the French president called to “stop providing weapons to carry out the fighting in Gaza”, in a message addressed mainly to the United States, while affirming that “France does not deliver any”. “Stopping arms exports” used in the Palestinian territory but also in Lebanon is “the only lever” to put an end to these conflicts, he added on October 11, while ensuring that he would not was not about “disarming” Israel.
“Shame!” exclaimed the Israeli Prime Minister in a video published on October 5. In it, Benjamin Netanyahu estimated that “all civilized countries should stand firmly alongside Israel” which “fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran”. The two men had ended up calling each other, already, to “embrace their differences”, according to a report made by the Elysée, also underlining France’s “unwavering commitment” to the security of Israel.
The French defense of peacekeepers in Lebanon
The tone then rose a notch after the Israeli army injured five soldiers of the Blue Helmets of the UN peace force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Friday October 11 and Saturday October 12. This military force of 10,000 men, including a contingent of 700 French, then denounced on Sunday “shocking violations” by Israel against its positions, reporting a “forceful” entry of two tanks into one of them. between them.
Echoing widespread criticism from the international community, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Israel’s ambassador to France, while Emmanuel Macron warned that France would not tolerate further shooting and would continue to contribute “to the full implementation of the UNIFIL mission”.
The next day, Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the controversy by calling on the UN to take peacekeepers in Lebanon “to immediate safety”, after the Israeli army justified its shots by claiming that the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah was using “UNIFIL installations and positions as a cover to carry out its attacks” against Israel.
The rupture between the UN and Israel in question
It is this new statement that appears to have provoked Emmanuel Macron’s most recent criticism of the Israeli government. Indeed, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and UNIFIL should be deployed in southern Lebanon, in opposition to the land invasions of the Israeli army in this region.
In reaction, Emmanuel Macron declared on Tuesday October 15 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not “free himself from UN decisions”, specifying that the creation of the State of Israel had itself been supported by a United Nations resolution in 1947.
According to a report from the Elysée published the next day, the President of the Republic subsequently spoke on the telephone with Benjamin Netanyahu, an exchange during which he also condemned “indiscriminate Israeli strikes which only weigh down a already unbearable human toll, in Gaza as in Lebanon.
A deterioration of relationships which causes people to react
The head of the Israeli government was visibly stung by these statements and made it known with a thunderous response: “A reminder to the President of France: it is not the UN resolution which established the State of Israel, but rather the victory obtained in the war of independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were survivors of the Holocaust – notably from the Vichy regime in France”, judged the head of the Israeli government in a press release.
But this time, Emmanuel Macron’s criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu also caused a reaction from French supporters of Israel’s action in the Middle East. Thus, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains), said on Thursday he was “stunned” by the comments attributed to Emmanuel Macron on the creation of Israel, denouncing a “misunderstanding of History”.
The presidential camp was also divided on the issue, according to two statements to AFP: the former president of the Ensemble pour la République group Sylvain Maillard reported on Wednesday “somewhat heated discussions” between “around ten” deputies on an instant messaging loop, while a former minister spoke of elected officials who “argue monstrously”.
If he preferred to occupy the international scene since the start of his cohabitation with the minority government of Michel Barnier, Emmanuel Macron finally finds himself in a hurry to return to the national scene to respond to criticism from the political class.