Israel’s Ambassador to France, Asher Ben Natan, accused the French government today of refusing to adopt a realistic policy toward Israel and claimed that relations between the two have changed little since the Six-Day War when they reached a nadir. However, he expressed the hope that Franco-Israeli relations would improve.
Ben Natan, who addressed a luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents Club here, was especially bitter over the recent French vote in favor of an Arab-backed resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Commission which accused Israel of violating the Geneva Convention and committing war crimes in the administered territories. “The facts on which France based its vote are false and France knows it,” Ben Natan said.
On the other hand, he described the recent contretemps over the participation of Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek in the opening ceremonies of a Paris exhibit in Jerusalem as “a tempest in a tea pot.” The Ambassador said the lack of French realism in its approach to Israel was manifested by the fact that no high French official has ever visited Israel to see “the Israeli reality close up” although a majority of the other European foreign ministers have visited Israel. Ben Natan expressed hope that Franco-Israeli relations would improve.
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