A dozen French ambassadors to countries in the Middle East and several Maghreb countries have signed a joint diplomatic note expressing regret over Emmanuel Macron’s pro-Israel position vis-a-vis the ongoing war being waged by Israel in Gaza, reported French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday.
According to an unnamed diplomat in Paris, in the note addressed to the Quai d’Orsay and recipients at the Elysée, the signatory ambassadors assert that France’s pro-Israel stance at the beginning of the crisis has been misunderstood in the Middle East and is at odds with France’s traditionally balanced position between Israelis and Palestinians.
Describing the ambassadors’ missive as a “note of dissent,” the diplomat who had reviewed it said, “it represents a loss of credibility and influence for France and highlights our country’s poor image in the Arab world.”
“All of this is the outcome of positions taken by the President of the Republic.”
The dissenting ambassadors cited Macron’s request, made during his visit to Israel, to extend the international coalition against Daesh to Hamas. Although the plan was scrapped, a French ambassador in the Middle East expressed dismay that France is sometimes accused of complicity in genocide, according to a French newspaper.
The signatory diplomats also criticized Israeli strikes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza seemingly marking some evolution in French sensibilities towards the escalation in Gaza.
Since the start of the war, several French ambassadors were excluded from certain decision-making circles in the countries where they are posted. One ambassador has also received death threats from radicals angered by the positions taken by Paris.
The crisis of confidence between France and the Middle East is “serious” and risks being “long-lasting,” warn the authors of the note. “We’ve had crises in the past with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, but we managed to defuse them fairly quickly,” recalled the unnamed diplomat who read the note. “This time,” he adds, echoing the protesters’ warning, “the mistrust of us runs deep and is likely to be long-lasting.”
France initially supported Israel’s right to defend itself against what the far-right Israeli government called a “terrorist attack” carried out by Hamas on 7 October, before recognizing, a few weeks later, the need for a humanitarian ceasefire to protect civilians in Gaza.