France has summoned the US ambassador, Charles Kushner, after he wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron alleging that Paris had failed to do enough to stem anti-Semitic violence, a French Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson says.
Kushner published the open letter in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, in which he focused on France’s criticism of Israel – which has been accused by leading rights groups of carrying out a genocide in Gaza – and its plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
“Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France,” he wrote. “In today’s world, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism – plain and simple.”
Paris was quick to respond to the ambassador.
“France firmly refutes these latest allegations,” a Foreign Ministry statement said on Sunday. “The allegations from the ambassador are unacceptable.”
France is “fully committed” to fighting anti-Semitism, the ministry added.
The Foreign Ministry’s statement also said that Kushner’s comments went “against international law, and in particular the duty not to interfere in internal matters of states” by diplomatic personnel.
“Furthermore, they do not live up to the quality of the transatlantic relationship between France and the United States and the trust that should result between allies,” it added.
The US State Department later replied, saying it stands by the comments made by Kushner.
“Ambassador Kushner is our US government representative in France and is doing a great job advancing our national interests in that role,” US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
Kushner already has a notorious reputation, said Al Jazeera’s Rosalind Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC.
“He spent two years in federal prison on tax evasion, witness tampering, and fraud charges,” she said. “He was later pardoned by Donald Trump and he is now just one month into being US ambassador to France.”
Israel has been imposing deadly hunger on Palestinians in Gaza, whom it has displaced repeatedly, as it systematically destroys the enclave of 2 million people, killing dozens daily.
In recent weeks, France and other Western nations have announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state, while maintaining their trade, diplomatic and security ties to Israel.
Still, the move has angered Israel and its top ally, the US.
Kushner, who is the father of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner, was pardoned by Trump during his first term, having been convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering in 2005.
The envoy’s letter follows a similar statement addressed to Macron by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, which also linked France’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state to anti-Semitism.
The French president’s office hit back swiftly at Netanyahu, calling his allegations “abject” and “erroneous”, and promising that they “will not go unanswered”.
“This is a time for seriousness and responsibility, not for conflation and manipulation,” the French presidency said, adding that France “protects and will always protect its Jewish citizens”.
Rights advocates say that Israel’s supporters often invoke accusations of anti-Semitism to distract from the country’s abuses against Palestinians and silence the debate around the issue.
