Israeli minister taking ‘legal measures’ against French arms fair ban

Israel’s foreign minister has announced he is taking “legal and diplomatic measures” against the decision by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to ban Israeli companies from showing their wares at an arms fair in Paris next month.

Israel Katz described the “boycott” as an anti-democratic measure that was “not acceptable, especially between friendly nations”.

Katz did not elaborate on the measures he had in mind and the French government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Organisers of the Euronaval Salon, a naval defence fair due to take place between 4 and 7 November, told Reuters that after a decision by the French government no Israeli stands or exhibits would be allowed, although delegates could attend.

Relations between France and Israel have been at boiling point since earlier this month when Macron called for an arms embargo “to stop supplying weapons to lead the fighting in Gaza”.

The French president’s call for a ban on weapons sales, believed to be largely aimed at the US, prompted a furious reaction from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “Shame on them,” he said referring to Macron and other unnamed western leaders, who he said had called for an arms embargo.

A few days after Netanyahu’s comments, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, urged an arms embargo as he expressed outrage about Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon .

Netanyahu has also attacked Macron over reports regarding how the French president had described the founding of Israel. According to two sources quoted by Agence France-Presse, Macron told his ministers that Netanyahu “must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN”, 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.

Netanyahu accused Macron of a “distressing distortion of history”, saying his country’s founding was achieved by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, not a UN ruling.

After a domestic furore in France, Macron blamed a “lack of professionalism” among his ministers, as well as journalists and commentators, for the row, claiming his words had been distorted and taken out of context. At a press conference after an EU summit on Thursday, he said: “I believe I say enough about the situation in the Middle East not to need a ventriloquist.”