Netanyahu trip causes disquiet

MANY JEWS ROUNDED UP IN 1942

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Paris yesterday to mark the 75th anniversary of a notorious roundup of thousands of Jews, an invitation that has angered his critics.

He will also hold talks with Emmanuel Macron, barely a week after Macron met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The ceremony marks the day in 1942 that officials of the Vichy regime in Nazi-occupied France, began rounding up more than 13 000 Jews in the Velodrome d’Hiver, an indoor cycle track in Paris.

Fewer than 100 of those who were detained at the so-called Vel d’Hiv and then sent to the Nazi death camps survived.

Netanyahu arrives just after a surge of violence in Israel, where a gun attack by three Arab Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday left two Israeli police officers and the attackers dead.

But his invitation to attend yesterday’s ceremony has not been universally welcomed.

The Union of French Jews for Peace (UJFP) described the decision to invite Netanyahu as “shocking” and “unacceptable”. France’s Communist Party also protested, saying Netanyahu was not bringing a message of peace.

And former French ambassador to Israel, Elie Barnavi, said: “The presence of Netanyahu makes me a little uneasy.”

The Israeli leader’s last visit to France was to attend a march held in solidarity with the victims of the January 2015 terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.

Netanyahu’s talks with Macron was to follow yesterday morning’s commemoration ceremony and would be looking for a clearer idea of the French president’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is not yet clear if Macron will follow the more interventionist line taken by his predecessor Francois Hollande, whose efforts to mobilise the international community on the question angered Israel.

Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have not resumed since the failure of US mediation in 2014. Since then the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has simmered on, with the occasional surge of violence.

“France and Europe have to get to grips with the question,” Barnavi told AFP.

“There is perhaps an opportunity, given the state the White House is in at the moment, and the plans of Donald Trump, which are vague and mysterious,” he added.

The two leaders were also expected to discuss Iran, in particular its role in the Syrian conflict, where it is backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. – AFP