“It’s a Catastrophe”: Facing Macron, the Great Disappointment of French Jews

On Friday several representatives of Jewish authorities and intellectuals and artists wrote to the president to ask him to condition the recognition of a Palestinian state “on the release of the hostages and the dismantling of Hamas”. An example of the concern and even anger in part of the largest Jewish community in Europe.

“Disappointment”, “total lack of confidence”… Among French Jews, many do not hide their bitterness in the face of Emmanuel Macron, whose upcoming recognition of a Palestinian state is confusing or even unworthy in the largest Jewish community in Europe.

“It’s a disaster. He does nothing for the hostages. We have the impression that the president is not affected by all this: at the Trocadéro, in Paris, where she demonstrates every Friday in support of the hostages, Nicole, 67, who does not wish to give her last name, does not don’t mince words.

However, the story started well with this community, the largest in Western Europe, numbering around 500,000 people. In September 2018, Emmanuel Macron is the first French president to attend a presentation of wishes to the Jewish community for Rosh Hashanah, jewish New Year, at the Great Synagogue of Paris.

A few months earlier, he had decided to enter the Pantheon of Simone Veil, an eminent political figure and Holocaust survivor. “He then showed a lot of emotion, I found that positive”, explains Marc Sindres, 77 years old. But “like many of us, I was extremely shocked by the fact that he did not participate in the march against anti-Semitism on November 12”, 2023, he adds. Emmanuel Macron believed that a head of state should not participate in a demonstration.

“Today we have a total lack of confidence in the President of the Republic, who should be the one who ensures our security”, he said, during a public meeting of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine).

“Failed appointment” according to Crif

Crif President Yonathan Arfi is well aware of these remarks, which echo a perceptible disaffection among many French people in general.

But “there was a major missed meeting with the President of the Republic during this absence from the march, which left many more traces than one could imagine”, he explains.

“The breakup was all the more violent because the hope had been great. “

Didn’t Emmanuel Macron, in a speech read by his Prime Minister at the 2022 Crif dinner, estimate that “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people”? “The breakup was all the more violent because the hope had been great”, adds Yonathan Arfi.

A rupture in several stages, notably in October 2024, when Emmanuel Macron called for an end to arms deliveries to Israel, which he accused of “sowing barbarism”. His name was booed during a ceremony at the Dôme de Paris a few days later. Another tension: the closure of the Israeli stand at the Le Bourget air show last June.

And the gestures of the Head of State struggle to convince, whether it is the measures to combat anti-Semitism or the tribute paid in February 2024 to the French victims of October 7, in the courtyard of Les Invalides, but that some in the Jewish community considers it late.

Worsened fracture

In this context, the announced recognition of a Palestinian state made the fracture worse.

“In what territory, with what government? Macron is not even waiting for the hostages to be released as he said”, sighs Isaac, 73, who wishes to remain anonymous, and feels “betrayed” after having “voted for him”.

According to an Ifop poll commissioned by Crif, published this week, only 29% of French people believe that France “must recognize a Palestinian state immediately and unconditionally”.

Some of these representatives were received on Tuesday by Emmanuel Macron to make him “raise anger” from the field, according to a participant.

Jewish New Year’s Day

Because the very date of this recognition, September 22nd, which this year coincides with Rosh Hashanah, arouses strong emotion.

“It was not Macron who chose the date, but that’s bad timing. Everyone will be with their family and will receive the notification on their phone at 9:30 p.m… sighs Sarah Aizenman, from the Nous Vivrons collective.

“This recognition will necessarily have consequences on the explosion of anti-Semitism”, she fears.

Emmanuel Macron called on Saturday, on X, for “absolute vigilance and immediate response, to identify and very firmly punish the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts”, while these facts have been soaring in France for two years. A resurgence which “has nothing to do with the recognition process”, he judged Thursday on Israeli channel 12.