France has issued a formal summons for US Ambassador to Paris, Charles Kushner, in response to his recent open letter to President Emmanuel Macron, which contained serious allegations regarding the rising tide of antisemitism in the country. Kushner claimed that incidents of hate against Jews have surged since the onset of hostilities in Gaza, asserting that Jewish people experience daily assaults and vandalism in France.
In his letter published in the Wall Street Journal, the ambassador cited examples of antisemitism that have deeply affected French society. He urged Macron to reconsider his criticism of Israel and offered to collaborate with the French leadership on developing significant initiatives to address the matter.
In retaliation, a statement from France’s Foreign Ministry firmly rejected these allegations as unacceptable and emphasized that ambassadors should not meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign nations as stipulated by the 1961 Vienna Convention. Similar sentiments were echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his own communication to Macron, accusing the French president of exacerbating antisemitism through calls for Palestinian statehood recognition—a goal France aims to achieve by September.
Macron’s announcement underscored the need for a viable Palestinian state, conditioned on its demilitarization and recognition of Israel, as crucial for peace in the Middle East. He has previously condemned antisemitism as contradictory to French values and enhanced security around Jewish sites amid rising tensions linked to conflict in Gaza.
The Israel-Palestine conflict, reignited by a Hamas attack in October that resulted in numerous casualties, has invoked humanitarian crises, including confirmed famine conditions in Gaza City, which Israel disputes.
