Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Sunday denounced French President Emmanuel Macron for suggesting Palestinian prisoners in Israel were “hostages” and juxtaposing them with Israelis being held captive in Gaza.
Sa’ar labeled as a “lie and moral distortion” the remarks by Macron, who made them at a June 14 press conference in Paris. The video went viral on Sunday, drawing condemnations from French Jewish groups as well as Israel.
In the viral clip of the event, Macron outlines his vision for ending the war in Gaza, saying in English: “First the freeing of the hostages and then a ceasefire.” When a person in the audience asks whether this includes Palestinian hostages, Macron replies, “Yes, all,” then reaffirms: “on both sides,” as the audience applauds.
Thousands of Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel, some for terrorism, others for criminal offenses. Many are awaiting trial or in administrative detention—a controversial practice involving indefinite detention without charges for security reasons. Israel’s Supreme Court has approved the use of administrative detention against both Israelis and Palestinians, within limitations.
Western governments typically do not describe Palestinian prisoners as “hostages,” since they are not being held for leverage, unlike the roughly 50 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Sa’ar on X called Macron’s remarks an “Example of the lie and moral distortion of French policy.” In Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza, “there are Israeli civilians who were abducted from their homes. In Israeli prisons, there are Palestinian terrorist murderers. This abhorrent symmetry — that’s the whole story,” Sa’ar wrote in a post that the Israeli foreign ministry translated to French and reposted.
French-Israeli relations have deteriorated since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people and triggering an ongoing Israeli military campaign to dismantle Hamas and free all of the 251 hostages the terrorist group had taken.
France said it would recognize a Palestinian state in September, leading other European and Western countries to declare the same. France has also imposed an arms embargo on Israel, and Macron has suggested in November 2023 that Israel’s actions in Gaza were “barbarism.”
The 7 Oct. Collective in France, an organization set up the CRIF umbrella of French-Jewish communities, B’nai B’rith International and other partners, also condemned Macron’s juxtaposition of the Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. “No, Mr. Emmanuel Macron. There are no hostages ‘on both sides.’ This statement is a shock,” the Oct. 7 Collective wrote on Friday.
The French embassy in Israel did not immediately respond to a request by JNS for comment on the criticism leveled at Macron.
