Israel warns France of taking 'legal measures' against latest ban to participate in Paris fair

The diplomatic row between Israel and France escalated after Israel’s Foreign Minister announced that he is taking “legal and diplomatic measures” against the decision by the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Israel Katz condemned Macron for banning Israeli companies from showing their wares at an arms fair in Paris next month.

The Israeli diplomat described the “boycott” as an anti-democratic measure that was “not acceptable, especially between friendly nations”. However, he did not detail how the Israeli authorities would respond to the bans and the French government did not immediately comment on the matter.

Earlier this week, organisers of the Euronaval Salon, a naval defence fair scheduled to take place between 4 and 7 November, clarified to Reuters after the decision by the French government, that Israeli stands and exhibits will not be allowed at the fair. However, the organisers made it clear that Israeli delegates are free to attend the event.

The deterioration of ties between France and Israel

It is pertinent to note that the relations between France and Israel reached a boiling point earlier this month when Macron called for an arms embargo “to stop supplying weapons to lead the fighting in Gaza”. The French leader’s call to ban weapons sales prompted a furious reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Shame on them,” the Israeli premier said referring to Macron and other unnamed Western leaders, who he said had called for an arms embargo. A few days later, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also called for a halt in sales of arms after he condemned the Israeli attacks on UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon.

Amid the chaos, Netanyahu also slammed Macron over how he described the founding of Israel. According to two sources quoted by Agence France-Presse, Macron told his ministers that Netanyahu “must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN." The French president was referring to the resolution adopted by the United Nations in November 1947 in regard to the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

In response to this, Netanyahu accused Macron of a “distressing distortion of history”, saying his country’s founding was achieved by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, not a UN ruling.

Amid the growing criticisms over the matter, Macron went on to blame the “lack of professionalism” among his ministers as well as journalists and commentators, for the row, claiming his words had been distorted and taken out of context. “I believe I say enough about the situation in the Middle East not to need a ventriloquist," the French leader said at a press conference after an EU summit on Thursday.

With inputs from agencies.