Controversy has erupted in France over plans for a lavish VIP gala in Paris sponsored by Israel is Forever, an association of staunchly pro-Zionist groups.   

At €260 a head, the evening celebrating “the power and history of Israel” – the location of which has not yet been disclosed – has already drawn vocal opposition from French human rights groups, unions and leftist politicians.

“Holding this gala in the French capital would constitute an insult to international law and contempt for the UN and for the orders issued by the highest international court,” seven civil rights group wrote in an open letter last week, referencing International Court of Justice rulings that included calling on Israel to prevent acts of “genocide” in Gaza.

The leader of Israel is Forever has made headlines for dismissing the human toll of the war in Gaza, saying that no one in Gaza was “innocent”.

"The civilian population put Hamas in power knowing full well what its programme was, that is to say, the extermination of Israel,” French-Israeli lawyer Nili Kupfer-Naouri told far-right French news site CNews in October 2023. “Go and see the Hamas demonstrations, where there are 1-year-old children dressed in Hamas colours.”  

“There is no innocent civilian population in Gaza," she proclaimed.

Kupfer-Naouri was accused earlier this year of blocking humanitarian aid trucks trying to enter the besieged Gaza Strip and of making anti-Arab remarks in an interview broadcast by Studio Qualita. 

"We no longer want barbaric neighbours, we understand that we must obtain our security and this is through the mass emigration of Arabs from Gaza and a Jewish settlement," she said.

Deputy Thomas Portes of the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party vilified her statements as a renewed “call for the genocide of the Palestinian people” on social media platform X. 

One of the speakers expected at the gala was Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has described himself as a “fascist homophobe” and who opposes Arabs having the right to vote in Israel. 

A recording made public last year revealed Smotrich saying his supporters cared more about his stance on keeping Arab parties out of the government than they did about his anti-LGBT positions because they “don’t give a damn” about the “gays”.

“I may be a far-right person, a homophobe, racist, fascist, but my word is my bond,” he said of the accusations leveled against him.

One of the most far-right ministers in Binyamin Netanyahu's government, Smotrich is a staunch supporter of settlements and has said that Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion should have “finished the job” and ejected all Arabs upon the founding of Israel.

Smotrich, who is in charge of settlements in the occupied territories, presented a vast plan back in March to seize 800 hectares of Palestinian land, the largest seizure of Palestinian territory since the Oslo Accords.

On Monday he ordered Israel to prepare to annex settlements in the West Bank in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election.

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20241112-controversy-erupts-france-red-carpet-israel-forever-far-right-paris-gala-smotrich

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