Israeli embassy officials in Paris said to have tried to torpedo Smotrich visit

Members of the Jewish community in Paris accuse staffers at the Israeli embassy there of trying to torpedo the visit last week of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Channel 12 reports.

The report says the acting ambassador did not greet Smotrich at the airport or meet with him during his visit. (The last ambassador, a political appointee by former Prime Minister Yair Lapid quit rather than represent the current government.

The report quotes unnamed members of the Jewish community as saying the embassy told local officials not to meet with Smotrich as an act of protest against the controversial judicial reforms being pushed by the government.

The Foreign Ministry says the charges will be investigated, but notes that the minister was in Paris for an annual two-day ministerial summit hosted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD.)

Israel has a separate mission to the OECD in Paris that should have been responsible for Smotrich’s visit.

Last week, French officials and leaders of the three main Jewish community organizations in the country were said to be refusing to sit down with Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party.

Smotrich’s office reached out to multiple French counterparts for meetings and was turned down, a French official told The Times of Israel at the time.