Israel: new polemical remarks by Minister Smotrich visiting France

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Knesset in Jerusalem on March 20, 2023. AFP - GIL COHEN-MAGEN

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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh calls Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's statements "inflammatory." Passing through France Sunday, March 19, the latter declared "there are no Palestinians, because there is no Palestinian people". New polemical remarks from one of the most contested members of the Israeli government.

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It is to pay tribute to a deceased that Bezalel Smotrich stopped in Paris this Sunday, March 19. The Israeli finance minister was invited to a ceremony in memory of Jacques Kupfer, who died in 2021 after having long represented in France the ideas of the Israeli right. "Private visit" repeated in recent days the Israeli Embassy in Paris, "private event" assured the organizers. Namely, the association Israel is For Ever, which intends to work for the "mobilization of French-speaking Zionist forces" and claims "a sovereign Jewish State over the entire extent of its Land", that is to say including the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel.

The announcement of the presence in Paris of Bezalel Smotrich, who chairs the Religious Zionism party, having sparked calls to demonstrate, the organizers had to change room for this evening whose address was very discreetly broadcast to the only guests during the day of Sunday. All against a backdrop of rumors of cancellation of the visit.

This totally unprecedented climate for the visit of an Israeli minister is explained by the radical positions of Bezalel Smotrich, who has been sitting since the beginning of the year in the most right-wing government in Israel's history. And it was in a room near the Champs-Élysées, in front of an audience of about 400 people according to the organizers, that Bezalel Smotrich finally spoke.

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There are noPalestinians, because there is no Palestinian people," the minister said.

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There are no Palestinians, because there is no Palestinian people " said the latter, quoting the words of Jacques Kupfer (former president of the French branches of the Israeli Likud party and the Betar movement, both right-wing as the other), to whom the evening was dedicated.

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This is the historical truth, this is the biblical truth... and this truth, the Arabs in Israel must hear it as well as some Jews... in Israel, this truth must be heard here at the Elysee Palace, and at the White House in Washington, and everyone must hear this truth, because it is the truth," the Israeli minister continued. whose pulpit was adorned with a map of a "Greater Israel" including present-day Jordan in addition to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel's internationally recognized borders.

► READ ALSO: Israel: the far right refuses to condemn the attack of Huwara by settlers

In recent weeks, Bezalel Smotrich had already called for the "razing" of the Palestinian village of Huwara, in the north of the West Bank, before retracting his remarks, which the France had then deemed "unworthy" and "irresponsible". The French authorities claim to have had no contact with Bezalel Smotrich during his recent stay.

Embarrassing visit for Jewish institutions in France

In February 2022, the latter was received at the National Assembly. He was then a member of the Knesset, not yet a member of the Israeli government, but already known for his racist and homophobic positions. Bezalel Smotrich "is not welcome in France," declared the League of Human Rights a few days before his visit to Paris, describing him as "Arabophobic, homophobic, ultra-colonialist".

His visit also embarrassed Jewish institutions in France which have not announced any contact with the Israeli minister. Contacted by RFI, CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France) confirms the absence of any meeting. The French branch of the Jewish National Fund (KKL) also requested the removal of its logo from the poster announcing Bezalel Smotrich's reception before organizers decided that the event would be held in an undisclosed location.

Before this extraordinary visit to French soil, the Israeli Minister of Finance had stayed in the United States, where Jewish organizations demonstrated their rejection of his far-right positions and their opposition to the current Israeli government's judicial reform project.

► READ ALSO: United States: controversy around the visit of Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Minister of Finance

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