Jordan Bardella, the leader of France's far-right National Rally (RN) party, is to make an unprecedented visit to Israel later this month to attend an international conference on fighting anti-Semitism. While the party has worked to shake off links to Holocaust-denial, some French Jewish figures and politicians are uncomfortable over the visit.
MEP Marion Marechal, the niece of Marine Le Pen and who leads a separate far-right movement, will also attend the conference, held in Jerusalem on March 26 and 27.
Both politicians were invited by Amichai Chikli, Israel's minister for the diaspora and a member of the right-wing Likud party.
While National Rally representatives have visited Israel before, this is the first time such high-level figures have been invited to this type of conference.
"Jordan Bardella will deliver a speech on the rise of anti-Semitism in France since October 7," a source close to Bardella told France's AFP news agency, referring to the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel in 2023.
"My presence in Jerusalem for this major conference against anti-Semitism demonstrates our absolute commitment to this fight," Bardella told the JDD newswpaper. "RN is no longer the National Front."
Shift away from past anti-Semitism
The National Front (FN) was co-founded by Marine Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year. Known for his anti-Semitic remarks, he declared in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers used to exterminate Jews were "just a detail in the history of World War II".
Marine Le Pen has strived to distance the movement from her father's legacy, renaming the party the RN in 2018 and seeking to make it electable.
Last month Bardella abruptly withdrew from a meeting of conservatives in the US, citing concerns over a gesture made by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon that he described as 'alluding to Nazi ideology'.
However, during last summer's legislative elections, several RN candidates were involved in scandals over anti-Semititic, racist or homophobic remarks on social media.
France's far right tries to move away from past anti-Semitism
Mixed reactions
France's council of Jewish insitutions (Crif) has yet to react to the upcoming visit, though a source within the Jewish community told Le Parisien they were "very uncomfortable".
Writer and philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy, who is Jewish, told Le Monde he had withdrawn from the conference due to the two politicians.
Meyer Habib, a former right-wing lawmaker and staunch defender of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, welcomed the invitation. "I have a problem with the RN’s historical DNA, but since 7 October, they have been impeccable," he told Le Parisien. "Why should they not be invited? We need to stop talking about political quarantine."
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Shifting positions on Israel
Bardella’s visit is part of a broader diplomatic shift in Israel as the Netanyahu government, under pressure from the hard right, seeks to forge closer relations with several far-right parties in Europe.
Argentina's president Javier Milei and other far-right politicians in Europe are reportedly on the conference guest-list.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar recently lifted a ban preventing Israeli diplomats from engaging with far-right European parties. Ambassador Joshua Zarka defended the decision, stating that Israel now talks with all political groups willing to engage.
Maréchal, who once supported a two-state solution, has hardened her stance since the 7 October attack, arguing Hamas would turn Palestine into an Islamic caliphate.
Bardella has taken a similar stance, underlining that a Palestinian state would "legitimise Hamas".
Mathieu Lefèvre, an MP with the President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party and head of the France-Israel friendship group, remains skeptical over the politicians' commitment to battle anti-Semitism.
"The RN still includes figures linked to Holocaust denial," he warned, calling the visit a dangerous attempt to normalise the party’s image.
In November 2023, Macron attacked the RN, without naming it, accusing the movement of "claiming to support our compatriots of Jewish faith by confusing the rejection of Muslims with support for Jews". His remarks followed RN's controversial participation in a huge rally against anti-Semitism following the 7 October attacks.
