The head of state received the Israeli Prime Minister without publicly criticizing his attacks on the Supreme Court. He remained discreet about the repression and violence in the West Bank.
by Louis Imbert (Jerusalem, correspondent) and Philippe Ricard
Paris offered Benyamin Netanyahu, Thursday, February 2, after a chaotic month since his return to power in December 2022, and while Jerusalem and the West Bank are sinking into a spiral of repression and violence. The Israeli Prime Minister joined Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée, for a work dinner as discreet as he had been improvised. A handshake in front of the photographers, no statement on the porch of the Elysée. A press release without anything protruding and a hug at the exit.
This text does not mention the fears of the French president, which he nevertheless expressed without detour to the table, faced with the reform of justice wanted by Mr. Netanyahu and by his government partners, extreme training Ultraorthodox right and religious. Led at a charge, this reform threatens to break the power of the Supreme Court, the only institutional counter-power in the government. It opened an unprecedented crisis since the birth of the State in 1948. It aroused vast demonstrations in Tel Aviv. For Mr. Macron, if the reform led to the state, Paris should conclude that Israel has emerged from a common conception of democracy.
By its discretion, France chooses not to follow the example of Washington. In Jerusalem, on January 30, the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had embarrassed Mr. Netanyahu, by expressing his fears for the rule of law in Israel with words. On the Palestinian question, however, he had nothing to say, or so little.
The Israeli Prime Minister surprised Paris by offering this visit earlier this week. He had seized an invitation relaunched by Mr. Macron after the attack led by a Palestinian in a colony of East Jerusalem, which left seven dead on January 27. It was the day after the deadliest raid led by the Israeli army for twenty years in the West Bank, who killed ten Palestinians in Jenine.
For Paris, it is imperative to “treat” Mr. Netanyahu, to frequent it and to exhibit it. “He is the most” left “of this government, and the only” adult “in the room [alongside his radical allies], notes a connoisseur of the file. We are forced to rely on him to contain his troops . Netanyahu needs international reprobation to hold its allies. “
Disappointment of human rights defenders
This analysis is based on a precedent: in early January, the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, went to the esplanade of the mosques in Jerusalem (the Mount of the Temple for the Jews). Before his appointment, Mr. Ben Gvir has long sity alongside messianic Jews, more and more numerous to pray on the site, under police protection.
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