Netanyahu to meet with Macron, attend Paris Holocaust ceremony

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris later this month for his first formal meeting with the French leader, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday.

During his visit to Paris, Netanyahu and Macron will attend a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup of some 13,000 of the city’s Jews.

The two of them will both speak at the event, after which they will hold a face-to-face meeting at the Elysee Palace.

Netanyahu met briefly with Macron on Saturday in Strasbourg, where both were attending the funeral of the German chancellor Helmut Kohl alongside dozens of other world leaders.

It was the first time he met in person with Macron, according to the Haaretz daily.

While in Strasbourg, Netanyahu also visited a synagogue and addressed attendees at Friday night prayer services, but left before the start of Shabbat in order not to desecrate the holy day, the PMO said.

In light of his attendance at Kohl’s funeral on Shabbat, the PMO on Saturday evening released a statement that took pains to emphasize that Netanyahu had not violated the Jewish day of rest.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu walked on foot from his hotel to the European Parliament building. The prime minister was invited to speak, but chose not to because of the Shabbat and also did not sign the guestbook,” the statement said.

In photos from the event Netanyahu can be seen wearing translation headphones as he listened to the speeches.

Israel is a secular state, and most of its leaders are not religious. Yet it has long been an unwritten law that senior representatives of the government may not be seen desecrating the Shabbat or Jewish holidays. When German chancellor Konrad Adenauer was buried on a Saturday in 1967, prime minister David Ben-Gurion famously walked behind the motorcade transporting the coffin.

“Helmut Kohl was a great friend of the State of Israel and Israel owes him a great debt for strengthening its security,” the statement said, noting that “there are precedents for the participation of prime ministers at similar events [on Shabbat]. Menachem Begin participated in the funeral of Anwar Sadat and Shimon Peres participated in the opening of the Olympic games in Beijing.”

Ultra-Orthodox coalition parties have frequently threatened to topple coalitions over public Shabbat desecrations that are not deemed matters of life and death.