Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned French President Emmanuel Macron after he criticised Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank during his address to the UN General Assembly.
“Look at what’s happening in the West Bank, where day in, day out, we are seeing violations. And in the name of what? Hamas was never very active in the West Bank,” Macron said in French, according to the UN’s interpreter.
Netanyahu called the remarks a “grotesque absurdity” and said members of the Palestinian armed group there “carry out attacks against Jews almost every day”.
There was no response from Macron’s office, but one French diplomatic source said there had been a “misinterpretation”.
The source told the Jerusalem Post that the meaning of the French sentence spoken by the president, “Le Hamas n’a jamais sévi en Cisjordanie,” was, “Hamas has never governed the West Bank.”
Macron also rejected US President Donald Trump’s assertion that he had ended the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Violence there has continued despite last October’s ceasefire, including almost daily Israeli strikes, while humanitarian conditions remain dire
“Some boast of a supposed peace. But that peace has not reopened humanitarian access for a single second,” he said. “Are we simply to stand by and watch this spectacle that should shame us all?”
After the address, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement: “The grotesque absurdity of Emmanuel Macron’s statement is staggering.”
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, also denounced Macron’s remarks as “out of touch with reality”.
Credit: bbc.com
