France has summoned US ambassador Charles Kushner after he wrote to President Emmanuel Macron claiming the country had not done enough to combat rising antisemitic violence, a French foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Kushner, who is Jewish and whose son is married to US President Donald Trump’s daughter, published the open letter in the Wall Street Journal amid deep divides between France and the US and Israel, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Kushner’s letter to Macron noted that Monday was “the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil” under Nazi German occupation.
He wrote: “I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it.
“In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” he added.
In the letter, he urged French president Emmanuel Macron to more urgently enforce hate-crime laws and tone down criticism of Israel, saying French government statements about recognising a Palestinian state have fuelled antisemitic incidents in France.
While “antisemitism has long scarred French life”, the ambassador argued that hatred of Jews “has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on October 7, 2023,” which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
“France firmly refutes these latest allegations,” said a foreign ministry statement in response, hours after the letter’s contents were made public.
“The Ambassador’s allegations are unacceptable,” the ministry said, adding Kushner would be due to appear on Monday.
The ministry said the 1961 Vienna Convention meant ambassadors were not permitted to interfere in a country’s internal affairs. Kushner would be summoned to the foreign ministry on Monday, it added.
Kushner’s letter follows another sent to Macron by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week in which Netanyahu accused Macron of contributing to antisemitism by calling for international recognition of a Palestinian state, according to the Jerusalem Post.
