PARIS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in Paris Sunday 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 for the first time since the French president’s election, barely a week after Macron met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Sunday’s 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 Friday left two Israeli police officers and the attackers dead.
But his invitation to attend Sunday’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, told AFP: “The presence of Netanyahu makes me a little uneasy.
“This story has nothing to do with Israel,” he added.
He will also hold talks with Emmanuel Macron for the first time since the French president’s election, barely a week after Macron met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Sunday’s 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 Friday left two Israeli police officers and the attackers dead.
But his invitation to attend Sunday’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, told AFP: “The presence of Netanyahu makes me a little uneasy.
“This story has nothing to do with Israel,” he added.
