French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy has canceled his participation in an international conference in Israel on combating antisemitism, following the announcement that Jordan Bardella, president of the Rassemblement National (National Rally) party, will attend the event.
The conference will take place in Jerusalem on March 26-27.
Lévy was due to give an opening speech at the conference on antisemitism organized by Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli.
The philosopher, who is a fervent defender of Israel, decided not to attend after learning that Bardella and MEP Marion Maréchal, a former member of the National Rally who is its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen’s granddaughter, were also among the guests.
Bardella’s invitation to the event, described as “historic” by the National Rally, marks a turning point in relations between his party and Israeli institutions.
Until now, the party, led by Marine Le Pen, has been largely sidelined by Jewish representative bodies in France and considered persona non grata in Israel—not least because of the antisemitic and Holocaust-denying statements made by several of its top executives from its inception until the early 2010s.
Marine Le Pen has transformed the former National Front founded by her father.
Bardella, also chairman of the Patriots in the European Parliament, a political grouping of far-right parties in Europe, will give a speech at the Jerusalem conference about the rise of antisemitism in France since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
He met with Chikli at the annual CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) in Washington on Feb. 21.
Originally published by the European Jewish Press.