French Jewish group seeks distance from Israeli confab drawing far-right leaders
CRIF umbrella group stresses invites for Jordan Bardella, Marion Marechal to attend Jerusalem antisemitism event came from Israeli authorities, noting ‘distrust’ of National Rally
PARIS, France — France’s main Jewish association on Monday distanced itself from an unprecedented invitation for two key figures in the French far-right to attend a conference this week in Israel on the fight against antisemitism.
Jordan Bardella, party leader of the National Rally (RN), and his fellow MEP Marion Marechal, who leads another far-right movement and is the niece of three-time RN presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, have been invited by the Israeli government to attend the conference on March 26 and 27.
Bardella will be the first RN leader to visit Israel while Marechal, the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the RN as the National Front (FN), will be the first member of the Le Pen family to visit Israel.
The participation of the pair and other far-right European figures has prompted a slew of Jewish participants to pull out, among them the head of the Anti-Defamation League and Britain’s chief rabbi.
This invitation “has come from Israel” and “does not involve the Jewish institutions of France,” said Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), the main umbrella association of French Jewish groups.
Arfi told the RMC broadcaster that French Jewish institutions had traditionally held a position of “distrust towards the National Rally” motivated by “historical reasons.”
Afri stressed the need for “critical distance” towards the RN, and said the fight against antisemitism “cannot be exploited politically.”
“Today, we feel that this issue is being used to present a new RN in a strategy to take power,” he said.
Since the devastating attack led by Palestinian terror group Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, the RN has sought to portray itself as a bulwark against antisemitism.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year, was known for his antisemitic remarks including declaring in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers used to exterminate Jews were “just a detail in the history of World War II.”
Marine Le Pen, who is eager to stand for the presidency for a fourth time in 2027, has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father’s legacy.
But critics accuse it of remaining inherently racist.
Bardella, himself subsequently interviewed by RMC, in turn, accused Arfi of “playing politics” and said his comments “ignore reality.”
Arguing that many French Jews had voted for the RN in 2024 legislative elections, he said that the RN is “no longer the National Front” whose co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was thrown out of the party by his daughter Marine for his antisemitism.
France is home to an estimated 500,000 Jews, making it the world’s third-largest Jewish population, after Israel and the United States, according to the World Jewish Congress.
The two-day Jerusalem conference, scheduled to start Wednesday, has been plagued by concerns from prospective attendees that their participation could help provide legitimacy to a growing class of populist parties, many of whom have histories of racism and antisemitism.
Among the scheduled attendees are Hermann Tertsch, a far-right Spanish member of the European Parliament; Charlie Weimers of the far-right Sweden Democrats party; and Kinga Gál, of Hungary’s Fidesz party.
Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli has said that he sees Europe’s far-right parties as allies countering the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and antisemitism on the continent.
However, his position has drawn the ire of many European countries, who note that many of these parties have their own histories of antisemitism, Holocaust denial and racism.
Last week, the Anti-Defamation League confirmed that CEO Jonathan Greenblatt had pulled out of the event.
Others who have announced they will not attend the conference include French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who had been slated as the event’s keynote speaker, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, UK government adviser on antisemitism Lord John Mann, veteran academic and activist David Hirsh, German antisemitism czar Felix Klein, and German politician Volker Beck.
However, several high-profile attendees have confirmed that they will still attend, including Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy; Yemeni journalist and influencer Luai Ahmed; and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
The conference will also feature many leading figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Argentinian President Javier Milei, and former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
The Times of Israel Community.