Israeli economic sources say France has “frozen” its economic ties with Israel in recent months. They say that the French attitude has further hardened in recent weeks.
According to these sources, France has still not fixed a date for a financial agreement for joint investments although the document has been worked out and now only needs official approval.
The sources claim the French government does not enforce the anti-boycott legislation approved by Parliament and say that a number of cases in which the government has failed to act have been registered in recent weeks.
As a further example of the “hard” line reportedly set by the French Administration, the sources say that not a single nationalized company has responded to some 200 invitations sent out by the Israel-France Chamber of Commerce for a study tour to Israel.
Some of France’s largest industrial and commercial corporations are now controlled by the state after the Socialist government nationalized them last year.
French official sources, questioned by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, deny that an anti-Israel policy is now being applied. They say that economic and technical matters “follow their normal course” and that only official visits at ministerial level are banned until Israel totally withdraws from Lebanon.
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