Israeli resident declared ineligible for French parliament

Tel Aviv lawyer Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou was declared ineligible to serve in the French parliament Friday due to irregularities in the financing of her campaign.

The French Constitutional Council annulled Poznanski’s election for one year after the financial irregularities were discovered. According to the council, she had transferred funds directly to her campaign instead of going through a fiscal agent.

Poznanski, a member of the French Socialist Party, won 55.88 percent of the vote in the French parliamentary elections. She was up against Valérie Hoffenberg of the Union for a Popular Movement Party, who serves as France’s envoy to the Middle East.

The 63-year-old Poznanski, who has resided in Tel Aviv for 20 years, was born in French Algeria, grew up in Marseilles and studied law in Nice. Twenty years ago, she moved to Tel Aviv, but retained a fondness for French language and culture. In 1991, she co-founded a French association in Israel, ADFI. Last year, she began to serve as an overseas representative to the French parliament, representing the “eighth district” — the southern Mediterranean region.