France banned entry to Israel's finance minister and violent settlers

The Chancellor of France, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced on Tuesday the decision of his Government to ban the Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, from entering the country; a measure adopted in coordination with the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, which also extends to four leaders of settler organizations and 21 violent settlers.

Barrot denounced that Smotrich “actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the recolonization of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and its disastrous consequences for the Palestinian population”, so Paris acts against “those responsible for the intensification of colonization and violence in the West Bank”.

He stressed that the international community, firmly committed in its “overwhelming majority” to the two-State solution, cannot accept Israel's violent policy against the Palestinian people.

In his message, Barrot attached the joint ministerial statement on the West Bank, which recalls that previously Australia, Canada, France, Norway and the United Kingdom made “the historic decision to recognize the State of Palestine” to enshrine the rights of the Palestinian people.

Mazo News Team