French President Emmanuel Macron has been forced to backtrack on comments he made seemingly criticising Israel for ‘killing women and children’ in Gaza.
Following comments he made earlier this week calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, tens of thousands of people marched against anti-semistism in Paris.
Israeli leaders claimed the comments made by Macron ’caused much pain and upset in Israel’, and the French President has since spoken to Israel’s president Isaac Herzog on the phone.
According to Herzog’s office, Macron said ‘he did not intend to accuse Israel of intentionally harming civilians’, and reaffirmed his support for Israel’s right to defend itself against the terrorist group Hamas, which killed 1,200 Israelis when they launched an unexpected attack on October 7.
The Elysee Palace has yet to release its own read-out of the call from Sunday night (November 12).
READ MORE: Macron blasts Israel and urges West to stand up against Gaza attacks
The controversial comments were made during an interview with the BBC on Friday, when he said: “These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.”
Macron’s comments and the ensuing backtrack came as 105,000 marched against anti-semitism in Paris yesterday.
The march began in the French capital at 3pm and took protesters 1.5miles from the Esplanade des Invalides to the Jardin du Luxembourg.
The march was policed by 3,000 officers and gendarmes.
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A number of high profile French politicians were also in attendance at the rally, including Élisabeth Borne, the prime minister, most of the government’s ministers, and former heads of state including Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.
They led the procession holding a banner that read: “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism.”
The march was organised by speakers of the French parliament Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher. However, Mr Macron was not present at the march.
Just the day before (November 11), Macron had published a letter in the Parisien newspaper condemning anti-semitism in France.
It read: “This fight against anti-Semitism must never divide us or ever lead to pitting some of our compatriots against others. In our history, anti-Semitism has always been the prelude to other hatreds and racism.”
Since the Hamas attack on October 7, authorities in France have recorded more than 1,200 incidents of anti-semitism.
However, political divisions in France were exposed as following the announcement of the event last week, Marine Le Pen and her far-right party, the National Rally said they would attend.
The party was founded by her openly anti-Semitic father Jean-Marie Le Pen, and the announcement angered both the far-Left France Unbowed and members of the Jewish community.
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