From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Israeli envoy says France’s temporary suspension of visas for El Al staff to be lifted
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
France’s temporary suspension of visas for El Al security staff “has been solved,” Israeli Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka tells The Times of Israel in a phone interview.
“That issue has been solved, the visas for El Al have been solved,” he says, stressing that the matter was unrelated to rising tensions between the two countries over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. “No, it was something different.”
The visas “are expected to be renewed,” following a dialogue between the Israeli embassy in France and the French Foreign Ministry, adds the ambassador’s spokesperson.
Reports — later confirmed by a French diplomatic source — that France had halted the visas of El Al security staffers sparked concern among Israelis and some diplomatic figures, including US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who publicly condemned the move.
Say it ain't so, France. Say it ain't so! What happened to France?https://t.co/yYINISH1Gh
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) August 12, 2025
The suspension had temporarily prevented staff of Israel’s flagship airline from working legally in France, the latest in a string of challenges El Al personnel have faced there amid mounting French opposition to Israeli policy.
Still, the French source, like Zarka, denied a link to the Gaza war, instead attributing the move to difficulties French diplomatic staff encountered during security screenings at Paris’s main airport.
The Times of Israel Community.