Khadijah Shehu Abdulkareem
France has summoned the United States Ambassador, Charles Kushner, after he accused President Emmanuel Macron’s government of not doing enough to fight antisemitism.
In a letter dated August 25 and published by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Kushner urged Macron to strengthen hate crime laws and reduce criticism of Israel. He claimed that France’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state had worsened antisemitic incidents across the country.
“I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it,” Kushner wrote.
The ambassador, who is Jewish and father of Jared Kushner—former senior adviser to Donald Trump and husband to Ivanka Trump—said antisemitism in France had “exploded” since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s military response in Gaza. He also argued that Macron’s criticism of Israel and his plan to recognise Palestine at the UN in September risked “emboldening extremists” and “endangering Jewish life in France.”
The French Foreign Ministry swiftly rejected the claims, calling them “unacceptable.”
“France firmly refutes these latest allegations,” the Ministry said in a statement. “The comments do not reflect the quality of the transatlantic relationship between France and the United States, or the trust that should exist between allies.”
The letter follows similar criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, who said antisemitism had surged in France after Macron’s announcement on Palestinian statehood. The French presidency dismissed Netanyahu’s accusation as “abject” and “false.”
This latest dispute adds to growing tensions between Paris and Washington, already strained by disagreements over trade, support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, and the future of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which is up for renewal at the Security Council on Monday.