French Jews protest planned closure of Israel’s Marseille consulate

French Jews are protesting the Israeli government’s decision to close down its consulate-general in Marseille, arguing that the city is home to one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities and would reinforce French Jews’ feeling of insecurity in the face of growing anti-Semitism.

“The closure of this diplomatic representation covering 26 French counties (an area of 166,171 square kilometers — eight times the size of Israel) would have genuine damaging consequences,” Hagay Sobol, a member of the Marseille City Council, wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an open letter published in The Times of Israel.

Closing the Marseille consulate would force up to 200,000 Frenchmen in need of consular services from Israel to travel to either Paris or Brussels, which are 800 and 1,000 kilometers away, respectively, he charged.

“As the local elected member, and in the current security context, the departure from this region of such important [a] diplomatic representation can only be a source of grave concern for me,” Sobol wrote. “It is not a stretch to fear that, should Israel decide to leave, other countries might follow suit and decide, in turn, to close down their consulates in Marseille.”

Israel decided to close the Marseille consulate, along with several other diplomatic offices, due to budget constraints.

Alain Cohen-Sabban, a Jew from Marseille, launched an online petition calling on Netanyahu to reverse his decision. So far, it has garnered 1,767 signatures.

“Marseille, the second-largest French city, has 70,000 Jews out of a population of one million people; it is the second-largest Jewish community after Paris and the third-largest in Europe, after Paris and London,” Cohen-Sabban wrote. Closing the Marseille consulate would likely affect 150,000 Jews living in the area, he claimed.

“This will happen in a dramatic time of the rise of anti-Semitism. If, unfortunately, this decision were implemented, it would worsen the feeling of insecurity and highlight a weakness of the State of Israel. Our community has never been so cohesive after the terrible incidents that occurred in France, especially in Marseille, with recent knife attacks. Each time, the consulate was a meeting point for all of us,” Cohen-Sabban added.

Roger Cukierman, the president of the French Jewish umbrella organization known as CRIF, sent a letter to Netanyahu urging him to reconsider. But the prime minister, who is also Israel’s foreign minister, was not convinced.

“As a result of government cutbacks, the Foreign Ministry had no choice but to close many of its diplomatic missions abroad, the consulate in Marseille,” Netanyahu replied to Cukierman.

“This decision does not diminish the strength of ties and solidarity of Israel with the Jewish community of Marseille, you know. My government remains fully committed to the Jews of France and we will maintain our relations with the Jewish community of Marseille through the Israeli Embassy in Paris.”

Israel’s consulate in Marseille opened in 1949 and was slated for closure in 2002 and 2009, but in both instances evaded the axe at the 11th hour.

Earlier this year, Israel’s Foreign Ministry decide to close down several diplomatic offices, including the embassies in Belarus and El Salvador and the consulate in Philadelphia.

Netanyahu has since reneged on the plan to shut the embassy in Minsk, citing “a series of discussions and consultations with senior Foreign Ministry officials and with [Immigrant Absorption] Minister Zeev Elkin,” his office said in a statement. Netanyahu “views as important the existence of an Israeli diplomatic mission in Belarus,” the communique added.

The government’s plans to close down several representative offices was also criticized in Israel. “I don’t understand what the motivation is for these moves,” former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman said in February, arguing that in times of unprecedented anti-Israel agitation in France and the US, Israel should invest more — and not less — in diplomacy.