The Middle East Eye website said that the issue of the complicity of many French people in the violations committed by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories has once again emerged into the open, after the occupation army summoned hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers, among whom it turned out to be many French nationals who also carry... Israeli citizenship.
According to Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, approximately 300,000 reservist soldiers were called in, including many French nationals who also hold Israeli citizenship, and they began leaving France to participate in the fighting against Palestinian factions in Gaza, according to media reports.
In 2018, a French newspaper obtained information from the Israeli army stating that 4,185 French nationals were then in active service in the army, but the newspaper said that the number was higher than that.
David, a 20-year-old young reservist, said in an interview at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris that he is ready to go “to protect his country and the people of Israel, and that he respects his oath,” and another young man, 22 years old, said in an interview with a program on the Parisian “20 Minutes” channel. On condition of anonymity, he said he did not hesitate "for a second," and added, "I couldn't bear to leave my family and friends there. I felt guilty. I have to protect them."
collusion
The new cycle of fighting between the Israelis and the Palestinians has returned the issue of these Frenchmen’s complicity in the violations of the Israeli occupation army to the agenda of French politicians again, as a female representative from the leftist “France Proud” party questioned the French Minister of Justice about the participation of Frenchmen in fighting alongside the Israeli army by volunteering. Civil.
The representative explained that there are a number of associations and support groups that allow the transfer of French donations to Israeli soldiers, and she wrote, “They benefit from tax deductions according to their situation,” denouncing the French involvement in the “illegal actions of the Israeli army,” and France’s “silence” regarding that.
Professor and history researcher Thomas Vescovi said that the French authorities cannot turn a blind eye to the complicity of their citizens with the Israeli army, which is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, as recently condemned by many non-governmental organizations, unless the French Ministry of Defense invokes the 1959 agreement that It allows military service for dual nationals, and therefore every individual who joins the Israeli army is complicit in these injustices.
A report previously published by the Middle East Eye website in this context showed several cases, including the case of the French-Israeli Elor Azaria, an Israeli army sergeant who was convicted of premeditated murder by a military court in January 2017 after he was filmed shooting the Palestinian Abdullah Fattah. Al-Sharif (21 years old) was shot in the head.
The second largest nationality
It is difficult to know the exact number of Frenchmen serving in the Israeli army, because both the French and Israeli embassies in France, the French Foreign Ministry and the Israeli army do not want to talk about this topic.
However, in 2018, Liberation newspaper was able to obtain a response from the spokesman for the Israeli Armed Forces, who said that 4,185 soldiers in regular service hold French citizenship, although the newspaper believed that the real number may be higher than that.
The website said that the percentage of French or French-Israeli citizens involved in the Israeli army represents between 1.7% and 3.5% of the total of this army, and therefore French nationality is the second most represented foreign nationality in the ranks of this army after American nationality.
At a time when the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip continue for the fifth day, resulting in 1,200 deaths on the Israeli side and more than 900 martyrs on the Palestinian side, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated in a new report that 4 French nationals were killed, and that 13 others were among the number. the missing.
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