An ultranationalist Israeli politician serving as Jerusalem’s deputy mayor has requested that trash not be picked up at the French consulate following Paris’s decision to prohibit Israeli companies from an arms fair.
The French ministry of defense attributed the decision to Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip’s Rafah city. The organizers of the Eurosatory trade exhibition, which is held just outside of Paris, said last month that French authorities had barred Israeli enterprises.
Deputy Mayor Arieh King asked the municipal sanitation department “to instruct Jerusalem municipal maintenance workers to immediately cease garbage removal service from the French consulate building” in a letter he had written, which he uploaded on the social networking platform X.
A City Hall statement said King’s request would not be implemented.
In his letter, he denounced “traitorous and anti-Israeli conduct” by French President Emmanuel Macron, who King said aimed “to harm the State of Israel and Israeli industry”, in an apparent reference to the French expo move.
“As the City Hall of Israel’s capital, we must not stand idly by and accept the French president’s decision to stand alongside the Hamas terrorist organisation,” King wrote.
France maintains a consulate in Jerusalem that serves Palestinians in the city’s east that Israel has annexed, as well as in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. It also has an embassy in the seaside city of Tel Aviv.
While Israel views all of Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, the Palestinians want east Jerusalem to serve as the future capital of their independent state.
The French consulate will continue to collect trash, a statement from Jerusalem City Hall informed AFP.
“The Jerusalem municipality removes trash from all parts of the city on a professional basis and provides the best service to all its residents,” it said.
A municipal official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss the matter with the press, told AFP King has no authority to decide on such a move.
Speaking to French media, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu stated that, in light of Macron’s unfulfilled requests for a halt to the violence in Rafah, it was improper to have Israeli defense companies and manufacturers present at the expo.
Despite widespread concerns for Palestinian residents sheltering in the far-southern city, Israel moved ground forces into Gaza in early May, vowing to destroy Hamas militants after the group’s October 7 attack.
74 Israeli companies were scheduled to participate in the Eurosatory event, which got underway on Monday. About ten of them, according to the organizers, intended to display guns.
“By decision of the government authorities, there will be no stand for the Israeli defence industry at the Eurosatory 2024 fair,” Coges Events had said in a statement confirming the ban.
Last week, French “hostile policies against Israel” were denounced by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a statement that was disputed by other high-ranking officials.
