The president of the National Rally Party (RN), Jordan Bardella, and MEP Marion Maréchal have been invited by the Israeli government to participate in a conference on the fight against antisemitism in Jerusalem on March 26 and 27, 2025. On this occasion, Bardella will deliver a speech on the rise of antisemitism in France since October 7, 2023. This was confirmed by Bardella as well as Maréchal, who is also the president of the Identity-Liberties Party and the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
In the name of a shared fight against Islamist terrorism, Israeli Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli has, in recent years, forged ties with the European far right. In February 2025, in Washington, he notably met with Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Spanish party VOX, as well as Jordan Bardella.
Chikli’s reasoning is explicit: "Antisemitism is a growing problem in Europe due to Muslim immigration," he declared at the 50th Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem in February 2025, adding: "European right-wing parties… understand the challenge posed by radical Islam and are willing to take the necessary steps."
Amichai Chikli is wrong: Antisemitism in Europe is also linked to the far Right
Where Chikli is mistaken is in crediting the rise of antisemitism in Europe solely to Muslim immigration, thereby ignoring the resurgence of neo-Nazism. Antisemitism cannot be analyzed solely through the lens of hatred of the other; it must be understood in all its historical and contemporary dimensions.
Already in 2018, in an op-ed published in Le Monde with colleagues, we wrote:
"The spread of Islamist ideology among some of our Muslim citizens exists and must be fought for what it is: an imminent danger to Jews, to France, and to democracy." However, "if we focus solely on Islamist antisemitism, we exonerate all others."
The second mistake of the Israeli minister lies in the illusion that the enemies of our enemies are our friends. However, alliances based on opportunism often pave the way for future conflicts.
Indeed, the RN has been trying to appeal to French Jews for several years. In January 2017, Nicolas Bay, then an RN MEP, traveled to Israel to visit Yad Vashem. This move was intended to whitewash the collaborationist past of certain RN leaders while furthering the party’s normalization strategy among Jewish voters.
Until now, some French Jews had resisted this attempt at seduction, but today, more seem to be giving in. This official invitation to Israel for a conference on antisemitism could be a turning point, offering Bardella and Maréchal a valuable form of legitimization for the 2027 presidential elections.
Moreover, if Chikli considers the nationalist movement an ally, he is mistaken. Some RN leaders came from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National, a man convicted multiple times for denying crimes against humanity, inciting hatred, and racial violence.
The ties between the new nationalist generation and neo-Nazi activists remain visible. Let us also not ignore the RN's increasing connections with European far-right leaders, some of whom do not even hide their antisemitism – such as Estonian neo-Nazi Ruuben Kaalep.
The RN and Maréchal’s party struggle to conceal their far-right ideology, inherited from their past, and the Israeli government does no better by inviting them. Personally, I remain convinced that one does not fight the plague by spreading cholera.
The writer is a historian and a specialist in Holocaust denial. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Comper Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa. She regularly lectures at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem.
She is the author of two books in French: Les idées fausses ne meurent jamais. Le négationnisme, histoire d’un réseau international (2021) and Le négationnisme. Histoire, concepts et enjeux internationaux (2023).