Israel Bars 27 French Lawmakers and Officials Ahead of Planned Visit

Israel revoked visas for 27 French left-wing lawmakers and local officials just two days before their scheduled visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, the delegation announced Sunday.

The decision follows Israel’s recent refusal to allow entry to two British Labour Party MPs and comes amid heightened diplomatic friction after French President Emmanuel Macron suggested France could soon recognize a Palestinian state. Macron has also urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

"Collective Punishment" Alleged

Israel’s Interior Ministry said the visas were canceled under a law permitting the exclusion of individuals deemed likely to act against the state. Seventeen members of the French delegation—comprising lawmakers from the Ecologist and Communist parties—condemned the move as "collective punishment" and called on Macron to intervene.

In a statement, the group said they had been invited by the French Consulate in Jerusalem for a five-day trip aimed at "strengthening international cooperation and the culture of peace." Their visas, approved a month earlier, were abruptly revoked without explanation.

"We want to understand what led to this sudden decision, which resembles collective punishment," the delegation said.

The banned officials included National Assembly members François Ruffin, Alexis Corbière, and Julie Ozenne (Ecologist Party), Communist Party deputy Soumya Bourouaha, and Communist senator Marianne Margaté, along with left-wing mayors and local legislators.

The group denounced the ban as a "major rupture in diplomatic ties" and warned that blocking elected officials from traveling "cannot be without consequences." They demanded a meeting with Macron and government action to pressure Israel into reversing its decision.

Growing Diplomatic Tensions

The incident follows Israel’s deportation earlier this month of two British MPs, Labour’s Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on similar grounds. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the move "unacceptable." In February, Israel also barred two left-wing European Parliament members—Franco-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan and Ireland’s Lynn Boylan—from entering.

Netanyahu has sharply criticized Macron’s suggestion that France could recognize Palestinian statehood, calling the prospect a "huge reward for terrorism" in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. Macron has proposed that such recognition could be formalized at an international conference in June.