From the Liveblog of
Monday, May 11, 2020
Over 70 current, former French officials publish statement encouraging Israel-Arab ties
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleMore than 70 current and former French officials, including two ex-prime ministers, publish a statement supporting an initiative encouraging Arabs to speak out in favor of establishing ties with Israel.
“We, political leaders of both the majority and the opposition, former ministers of the French Republic and civil society intellectuals, wish to lend our support to the historic initiative of the Arab Council for Regional Integration, whose members call for breaking the boycott of Israeli civil society in the Arab world,” they write in French magazine Le Point.
“The boycott of Israel… has negatively impacted the Israeli-Palestinian dynamic by preventing Arabs from influencing this conflict in a positive way, and by deepening Palestinian civil society’s isolation from its Arab environment,” the group writes.
The Arab Council for Regional Integration was founded in November by a group of intellectuals and politicians from 15 countries who called for the end of Israel’s isolation in the Arab world.
In their article, they called on the French government and others to “offer international protection to the members of the Arab Council for Regional Integration” and other Arabs who call for peace and dialogue with Israelis.
“Our diplomatic agents posted abroad should, where appropriate, be mobilized to provide such protection based on the principle of diplomatic inviolability, as recognized by international law,” they write.
The Times of Israel Community.