@RnaudBertrand This is crazy: Israeli police arrests 2 French military personnel (“gendarmes”) with diplomatic status in a Christian church (the Eleona Church) that has officially belonged to France for 160 years and is protected by diplomatic immunity: https://x.com/sambklf/status/1854544683646558335/video/1… To make things worse the church is located in occupied East Jerusalem – theoretically Palestinian territory – and the arrests occured as the French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit it. He cancelled his visit due to the presence of Israeli police on site and the breach of diplomatic immunity. Yet another unarguable proof that Israel respects absolutely zero rule.
Live reaction by France’s foreign minister, who looks very shaken: “I will not enter the Eleona domain today because Israeli security forces entered it armed without first obtaining authorization from France and without agreeing to leave today.” https://x.com/sambklf/status/1854567739261657497/video/1… In normal language, given this is officially French territory, it’s called an armed invasion of sovereign territory…
Some further elements according to a French diplomatic source: https://x.com/ObsDelphi/status/1854630689355739543?t=HsmSBPi-6lwAHfboDb52LQ&s=19… 1) It had been discussed before Minister Barrot’s visit that no armed Israeli security would be allowed on the site, so Israel violated that agreement 2) After Israeli forces forced their way through, the gendarmes who ended up getting detained negotiated for about 30 minutes, so there was no doubt that they were acting under diplomatic status attached to the consulate 3) Israeli authorities spread false claims about the event, for instance claiming that they had no idea who the gendarmes they detained were.
Meanwhile, the French far-right: “it’s France’s fault for having hurt Israel’s feelings”.
This is genuinely incredible and a clear proof that Le Pen’s camp in France, who love to call themselves “patriots”, are not much more than a modern version of Vichy: https://x.com/realmarcel1/status/1854626403255292377/video/1… The guy speaking below is @TugdualDenis, the editor in chief of @Valeurs, the main magazine that aligns with Le Pen in France today. He comments on an event that happened in Israel yesterday whereby armed Israeli police entered a Christian church in occupied East-Jerusalem that has officially been French territory for over 150 years (protected by diplomatic immunity) and arrested 2 French military personnel with diplomatic status who tried to prevent the breach. In other words Israel performed an armed invasion of sovereign French territory and took captives protected by diplomatic immunity, which, needless to say, is an extraordinarily serious offense in foreign relations.
Tugdual Denis’s response? He basically justifies Israeli actions: “Why aren’t we respected like that? Because we’ve made ourselves not respectable.
When Emmanuel Macron says that Israel owes its creation solely to the UN, even though there was a war of independence and Israeli blood was shed during that time, he knows very well that he’s trampling on Israel’s honor.
When he accuses Benjamin Netanyahu of showing barbarism in Gaza, he knows very well that he’s not going to warm up Franco-Israeli relations.”
Another state invades your own territory, capture some of your country’s military personnel, and you go say it’s basically your own fault for having hurt their fragile sensitivity? And you then dare call yourself a “patriot”? To me that’s treasonous, pure and simple.