Jordan Bardella, the youthful leader of France’s far-right National Rally, is set to visit Israel this month, marking a significant step in the party’s transformation from a bastion of French antisemitism to a staunch ally of Jewish communities. ‘Antisemitism is a poison,’ Mr. Bardella emphasized in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, a prominent Sunday newspaper. He announced his intention to attend a Jerusalem conference focused on antisemitism at the end of March and to visit regions of Israel impacted by the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. ‘Our commitment to this fight is unwavering,’ he declared.
This visit is unprecedented for the far-right party, as neither its long-standing presidential hopeful, Marine Le Pen, nor any other leader from the party, has officially visited Israel before. The party’s staunch opposition to what it describes as ‘Islamist ideology’ has driven it to strongly support Israel and its battles against Hamas and Hezbollah. Concurrently, the National Rally’s stringent anti-immigrant stance, particularly targeting Muslims, has garnered some support among French Jews.
Despite this shift, many within the French Jewish community continue to oppose the party. Bernard-Henri Lévy, a renowned intellectual and author of the recent book ‘Israel Alone’, a fervent tribute to Israel following the October 7 attacks, promptly withdrew from the Jerusalem conference due to Mr. Bardella’s participation. He communicated this decision to President Isaac Herzog of Israel.
The National Front, the precursor to the National Rally since its rebranding in 2018, was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who notoriously trivialized the Holocaust as merely a ‘detail’ of history and described the Nazi occupation of France as ‘not particularly inhumane’, despite the deportation of over 75,000 Jews to Nazi death camps.
