Israel’s Netanyahu lashes out at France’s Macron, Australian PM Albanese

A diplomatic row between Israel and Paris has broken out after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused French President Emmanuel Macron of fuelling “the anti-Semitic fire” in France by planning to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu’s accusation against the French leader was contained in a letter, seen by the AFP news agency on Tuesday, which claimed that anti-Semitism had “surged” in France since President Macron’s recent announcement that he will recognise Palestine as a state at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly next month.

The French president’s office hit back swiftly at Netanyahu on Tuesday, 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”.

“Violence against the [French] Jewish community is intolerable,” it said.

Reacting to Netanyahu’s letter, Benjamin Haddad, the French deputy minister for European affairs, said that France had “no lessons to learn in the fight against anti-Semitism”.

The issue, “which is poisoning our European societies”, must not be “exploited”, Haddad said.

France, which is home to Europe’s biggest Jewish community, has joined an estimated 145 of the 193 UN members that now recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, according to reports.

In his letter, Netanyahu said to Macron: “Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire. It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas’s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace French Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.”

Netanyahu’s diplomatic dust-up with Macron comes as the Israeli leader accused Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of being “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politicianwho betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews.

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) August 19, 2025

The Albanese government plans to recognise Palestinian statehood and on Monday cancelled the visa of Israeli politician Simcha Rothman, whose ultranationalist party is in Netanyahu’s governing coalition.

Rothman had been scheduled to speak at events organised by the Australian Jewish Association.

Hours later, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said he had revoked the visas of Australia’s representatives to the Palestinian Authority.

“I also instructed the Israeli Embassy in Canberra to carefully examine any official Australian visa application for entry to Israel,” Saar said.

“This follows Australia’s decisions to recognise a ‘Palestinian state’ and against the backdrop of Australia’s unjustified refusal to grant visas to a number of Israeli figures,” he said.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong called Israel’s revocation of visas for its diplomats an “unjustified reaction”, and said that Netanyahu’s government was increasing Israel’s diplomatic isolation on the world stage.

“At a time when dialogue and diplomacy are needed more than ever, the Netanyahu government is isolating Israel and undermining international efforts towards peace and a two-state solution,” Wong said in a statement.

Last week, Albanese said that Netanyahu was “in denial” about the humanitarian crisis being caused by Israel’s punishing war on Gaza.

On Tuesday, Jens Laerke, the spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that Israeli authorities had banned shelter items, such as tents, from entering Gaza for about five months, a period in which more than 700,000 people in the war-ravaged territory have been forcibly displaced and re-displaced by Israeli forces.

Laerke said Israel has classified tents as “dual use” because it considers that tent poles could be used for a military purpose.

UN Human Rights Office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan warned that Israel’s military takeover of Gaza City threatened a further humanitarian catastrophe.

“There are risks of mass displacement and more and more killings and more misery,” he said, adding that “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians in Gaza City were being ordered to move south to the al-Mawasi area, which Israel previously designated a “safe zone” but continues to bomb.