When Emmanuel Macron called on the international community to “stop delivering weapons” to Israel that could be used to “fight in Gaza”, his comments sparked some irritation, a great deal of embarrassment and very little support within his former ruling alliance. At the same time the French head of state's comments, made on public radio station France Inter on October 5th, provoked the ire of the Israeli government - “Shame on him” fumed prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that same evening – as well as anger from certain figures in his own party, Renaissance
Caroline Yadan, a Renaissance Member of Parliament for French citizens abroad - whose constituency includes Israel - expressed her “anger” and “incomprehension” on BFMTV news station. “Israel should not be disarmed in the current circumstances,” agreed Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly and member of Renaissance. The former president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, Sylvain Maillard, went even further. “Saying this is to equate Israel with terrorist groups,” he declared.
There was also a telling episode on October 7th, when Emmanuel Macron's name was booed twice during a tribute ceremony to the victims of the Hamas attack, organised by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF). The heckling was so loud that it forced prime minister Michel Barnier to pause his speech twice. “I'm not sure that was a tribute worthy of the occasion,” socialist MP Emmanuel Grégoire, who was present at the ceremony, said about the heckles. “Such boos are regrettable, as they always are when they occur during moments of remembrance,” he said.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
The only visible support for the president has come from an unlikely source; the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) leftwing alliance. “This is a major shift,” noted communist MP Jean-Paul Lecoq. “The president of the Republic has taken a step in the direction we’ve been advocating for several months. Let’s try to trust him. Things are moving; now we need to make the next step and take genuine action,” he said.
“Emmanuel Macron is right to highlight this issue, but now it's time to act,” echoed Mathilde Panot, leader of the radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) group in the Assembly. In an unusual show of support for the head of state, the leader of the LFI MPs described Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks about Emmanuel Macron as “unacceptable” and said it was “not right” for his name to be booed at the CRIF ceremony.
Between these two starkly different reactions, a third response has emerged in recent days, one summed up by a close ally of the president. “He’s right in principle, but doing it on the eve of October 7th is still very strange,” said this source. Emmanuel Grégoire, the Socialist Party spokesperson in the Assembly, also pointed to the “inappropriateness of the timing chosen by the president”, criticising a “regrettable lack of tact”.
Tensions in European capitals
Emmanuel Macron’s stance - which he reiterated on October 11th - is, in essence, hardly a revolutionary one on the geopolitical stage. A total embargo on arms sales to Israel, far broader than the one France has hinted at, has already been implemented by several Western governments, including those in Spain, Canada and the Netherlands.
In September the new Labour government in the United Kingdom also seemed to be moving in this direction, suspending dozens of arms export licences on the grounds of a “clear risk” they would be used in Gaza in the context of a “serious violation of international humanitarian law”. Since then, however, prime minister Keir Starmer has reassured Israel by ruling out the possibility of a total embargo.
Diplomatically, London walks the same tightrope as Paris, torn between its historic support for Israel and the desire to push Netanyahu’s government towards a ceasefire. This tension explains the vacillations in French diplomacy, which opens the door to recognising the Palestinian state without fully committing to it, and which reassures Israel of its support whenever Tel Aviv expresses anger over a statement.
During a visit to the Middle East on October 7th French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot continued with this delicate diplomatic balancing act, which has been in operation for the past year. In talks with his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, the pair largely sidestepped an issue that has cooled relations between the two capitals. “They acknowledged their disagreement, and the discussions mainly focused on Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza,” noted a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, who insisted that the minister “conveyed important messages” on international law, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the need for a ceasefire.
Jean-Noël Barrot's entourage also claims that the French head of state’s statements were received with “satisfaction” in Ramallah, where the minister met with Mohammad Mustafa, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. However, critics point out that “satisfaction” does not save lives, and the central issue is now that of translating Emmanuel Macron’s comments into action.
While calling for an international arms embargo, the president insisted on France Inter that France was not itself involved in selling weapons used in Gaza. This has been the official line since the beginning of 2024, with the authorities in Paris claiming they only provide Israel with military equipment that enables it to “guarantee its defence”.
French ambiguity
Regularly questioned by the media, opposition MPs and non-governmental organisations over the vagueness of this statement, the French government eventually became a little more specific. In a statement to Mediapart on January 24th, the Ministry of Armed Forces insisted that Paris did not export “lethal materials likely to be used against civilian populations in the Gaza Strip”. Eight months later, the message had evolved slightly, with France now asserting, in the form of a response from the Ministry of Armed Forces on September 4th, that it did “not export materials likely to be used in ground operations in Gaza”.
Some of the arms deliveries to Israel are intended for re-export outside the Israeli state. This applies, according to France's Ministry of Armed Forces, to 800 kilos of ammunition links for automatic weapons manufactured by the Marseille-based company Eurolinks that were delivered to Israel at the end of October 2023. Emmanuel Macron’s declaration that France does “not deliver weapons to conduct combat operations in Gaza” thus falls in line with this policy.
But neither the Élysée nor the Ministry of Armed Forces has ever provided the means to verify these claims: the precise list of military equipment sold and/or delivered to Israel by France remains unknown.
However, according to a report intended for Parliament and published by Mediapart, France delivered 30 million euros worth of arms to Israel in 2023. Since the months concerned are not specified, it is impossible to determine whether these deliveries continued during the height of the massacres by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip from October 2023 onwards. The Ministry of Armed Forces, questioned by Mediapart, insists that it does “not have a method that enables [us] to answer [that] question”.
Even if Paris is only delivering equipment intended for “defensive purposes” - for example, to support Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system - how does France ensure that the Israeli state, which requires a continuous flow of arms and ammunition, does not divert them from their original purpose? Has it received assurances from the Israeli government? And if so, how credible are they?
This question becomes even more pressing when one considers that over the past year Benjamin Netanyahu has distinguished himself with a series of lies and omissions over the war conducted by his troops. He has in turn incorrectly claimed that the ratio of civilians killed in Gaza was one of the lowest in the history of urban warfare, that the risk of famine was caused by Hamas stealing food - and not by the blockades put in place by the Israeli army - and that Americans protesting against the war were paid by Iran.
When questioned again on October 5th about how France could verify that the equipment it delivers is not being used by the Israeli army in Gaza or Lebanon, Emmanuel Macron essentially asked people to trust him. “I can confirm to you that this is absolutely not the case,” he assured the BFMTV television journalist questioning him.
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter