Foreign Ministry calls Charles Kushner\u2019s claim that Paris is not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism \u2018unacceptable\u2019.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kushner published the open letter in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, in which he focused on France\u2019s criticism of Israel \u2013 which has been accused by leading rights groups of carrying out a genocide in Gaza<\/a> \u2013 and its plans to recognise a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn today\u2019s world, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism \u2013 plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n Paris was quick to respond to the ambassador.<\/p>\n \u201cFrance firmly refutes these latest allegations,\u201d a Foreign Ministry statement said on Sunday. \u201cThe allegations from the ambassador are unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n France is \u201cfully committed\u201d to fighting anti-Semitism, the ministry added.<\/p>\n The Foreign Ministry\u2019s statement also said that Kushner\u2019s comments went \u201cagainst international law, and in particular the duty not to interfere in internal matters of states\u201d by diplomatic personnel.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, 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,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, France and other Western nations have announced plans<\/a> to recognise a Palestinian state, while maintaining their trade, diplomatic and security ties to Israel.<\/p>\n Still, the move has angered Israel and its top ally, the US.<\/p>\n Kushner, who is the father of US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner, was pardoned by Trump during his first term, having been convicted of tax evasion<\/a> and witness tampering in 2005.<\/p>\n