French Senate speaker 'astounded' by Macron 'ignorance' on Israel

The speaker of the French Senate -- the country's second most senior figure under the constitution -- said Thursday he was "astounded" by remarks attributed to Emmanuel Macron on Israel and accused the president of showing his "ignorance" of history.

Macron was quoted as saying in a cabinet meeting Tuesday that Israel "must not forget" it owed its existence to a United Nations resolution after its troops fired on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

The comment sparked a furious reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding to growing tensions between France and Israel, and also troubled Jewish community figures within France.

"It first of all shows an ignorance of the history of the birth of the State of Israel," Gerard Larcher, the right-wing speaker of the upper house, told Europe 1 radio.

"Questioning the existence of Israel touches on fundamental questions for me," he said.

"I was astounded that these remarks could be made," he added. The creation of Israel "did not come as a notarial act merely validated by the UN," he argued.

Larcher would take over the presidency if centrist Macron was incapacitated or suddenly resigned. He is a senior figure in the right-wing Republicans (LR) party to which Prime Minister Michel Barnier also belongs.

"Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN," Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting, referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

"Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN," he added, as concern grows over Israeli fire on UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

His comments from the closed door meeting at the Elysee Palace were quoted by two participants who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named.

In a blistering attack that is highly unusual from an establishment figure in France, Larcher questioned if Macron had taken account of the 1917 British Balfour Declaration, which supported the creation of a Jewish homeland, and even the Holocaust and its consequences.

Netanyahu has hit back at Macron's comments, saying the country's founding was achieved by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, not a UN ruling.

He also said that among those who fought for Israel in 1948 were French Jews who had been sent to death camps after being rounded up by the collaborationist Vichy regime, which governed a large part of France during the Nazi occupation in World War II.

In an interview with France's Le Figaro daily published Thursday, Netanyahu accused Macron of a "distressing distortion of history" and "disrespect".