A delegation of some 36 members of parliament from France visited Israel this week, seeing Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and meeting key officials from Sderot to Jerusalem.
The delegation came as part of an initiative by ELNET. The organization, which is non-profit and non-partisan, said that this is the largest delegation of its kind to visit during the Covid pandemic. The politicians held meetings with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.
According to Yossi Abravanel, Deputy Executive Director, ELNET-Israel, Herzog asked the members of the delegation to raise concerns about France’s participation in the Durban conference. Czech Republic has become the ninth country to pull out of the Durban IV meeting. The Durban conference has been well-known for its anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric in the past.
Abravanel said that for 22 of the members of the delegation, this was their first time in Israel, noting that they came from across the political spectrum and did not include any members from extreme left- or right-wing parties. Jews and Muslims were part of the delegation. “The idea was to bring the first large delegation during Covid. We had special authorization to bring them and the idea was to bring them to meet the new government and administration,” he said.
Many were not familiar with Israel and got to see Sderot, a community that has been bombarded by Hamas rockets for decades, as well as see the innovative Iron Dome defense system and meet IDF officers. On the second day of the visit, they met the president of Israel and key members of the Knesset. They also toured the Old City and Yad Vashem and went to the Davidson archaeological site near the Western Wall where they were given a presentation about Jewish history.
“The politicians in Israel took this opportunity to pass messages to France,” Abravanel said.
“The prime minister spoke about the Sarah Halimi case,” Abravanel said. “He expressed concern about how it was managed. There is now in parliament a special inquiry to check this. Two of the members of that commission were in the delegation. It is important when you speak to MPs about dealing with antisemitism in Europe.” Halimi, who was Jewish, was murdered in France, but the perpetrator was not sentenced due to findings that he was high on drugs.
Netanyahu spoke about the Iran threat and said that Europe should be concerned about how Iran uses the threat of being several months from a nuclear weapon to threaten the region, according to Abravanel.
“Our organization’s purpose is to bring decision-makers [to see] on the ground here,” he said, noting that while 85% of US members of Congress have visited Israel, only 10% of many European parliaments have. There was anti-Israel BDS criticism of the trip by Collectif Palestine Vaincra, which posted about the 36 members who came.
Abravanel said that this was a historic trip because of the large numbers who came.
The anti-Israel group “Collectif Palestine Vaincra” (Conquer Palestine Collective) which is affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, published the names of the 36 delegation members who traveled to Israel, including 21 deputies and 13 senators.
The group published the constituencies of the parliamentarians as part of a campaign to intimidate them and expose them to criticism. The move could also endanger their lives.
Some of the members of the delegation, who returned to France on Wednesday night, expressed outrage over the smear campaign that they are currently facing by the BDS and anti-Israel groups in France because of their visit to Israel. They also mocked the claim that the new Israel government represents the “far right” in Israel, noting that the coalition was also made up of centrist, left-wing and Arab parties.