France's main Jewish association on Monday publicly distanced itself from an unprecedented invitation for two key figures in the French far right to attend a conference this week in Israel on the fight against anti-Semitism.
Jordan Bardella, party leader of the National Rally (RN), and his fellow MEP Marion Marechal, who leads another far-right movement and is the niece of three-time RN presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, have been invited by the Israeli government to attend the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism on March 26 and 27.
Bardella will be the first RN leader to visit Israel while Marechal, also the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen who co-founded the RN as the National Front (FN), will be the first member of the Le Pen family to visit Israel.
This invitation "has come from Israel" and "does not involve the Jewish institutions of France", said Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), the main umbrella association of French Jewish groups.
Arfi told the RMC broadcaster on Monday that French Jewish institutions had traditionally held a position of "distrust towards the National Rally" motivated by "historical reasons".
He stressed the need for "critical distance" towards the RN, and said the fight against anti-Semitism "cannot be exploited politically".
"Today, we feel that this issue is being used to present a new RN in a strategy to take power," he said.
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'Playing politics'
Since the attack led by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on 7 October, 2023, the RN has sought to portray itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year, was known for his anti-Semitic remarks including declaring 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, who is eager to stand for the presidency for a fourth time in 2027, has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father's legacy.
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But critics accuse it of remaining inherently racist.
Bardella, himself subsequently interviewed by RMC, in turn accused Arfi of "playing politics" and said his comments "ignore reality."
Arguing that many French Jews had voted for the RN in 2024 legislative elections, he said that the RN is "no longer the National Front" whose co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was thrown out of the party by his daughter Marine for his anti-Semitism.
'Stabbing jews in the back'
France is home to an estimated 500,000 Jews, making it the world's third-largest Jewish population, after Israel and the United States, according to the World Jewish Congress.
Meanwhile, criticism is mounting on the Israeli government's decision to invite figures from Europe's extreme right.
According to the Jerusalem Post, diaspora Jewish leaders told a Knesset hearing that the Israeli government "had failed to coordinate with Jewish communities about the invitation of controversial right-wing European political leaders" to Thursday’s conference.
The Diaspora Ministry argued that it "had invited representatives from across the political spectrum" and had operated according to the foreign ministry’s diplomatic relations parameters.
But European Jewish Congress President Dr. Ariel Muzicant told the Knesset that "this [antisemitism] conference is stabbing Jews in the back," adding that conference organiser, Diaspora minister Amichai Chicli is "helping our enemies, you are giving fuel to those criticising Israel. By joining with the extreme right, you help those who criticise Israel."
(With newswires)
