A “totally unworthy” attitude. The Quai d’Orsay denounced on Tuesday the actions of a former Foreign Affairs colleague, filmed on Tuesday tearing down the portrait Israeli hostages from Hamas. Here is what we know about this affair.
What happened ?
A viral video showing a woman tearing down portraits of Israeli hostages in a street in the 2nd arrondist of Paris was broadcast on social networks on Tuesday. She is attacked by pers-by, who prevent her from removing these posters from a wall. “Shame on you,” one of them shouts several times. “Israel is a murderer,” she replies, holding posters in her hands, before leaving.
Who is she ?
The woman appearing in the video is “a former contractual collaborator of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs”, indicated the latter in a press release published Tuesday, which specifies that she is no longer under contract with the ministry “since last summer “.
Press release from the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (November 7, 2023)
A former contractual employee of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs was identified tearing down the portrait of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Among these hostages are several…
— France Diplomatie🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@francediplo) November 7, 2023
She would also be the author, according to the Quai d’Orsay, “of other publications comparing in particular the terrorist attacks of Hamas to the French resistance against the Nazi occupation”.
How did the ministry react?
“The video released today shows a totally unworthy attitude, behavior and comments which completely disqualify this person from maintaining any working relationship with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs,” reacted the ministry in its press release.
The publications on social networks of this ex-collaborator “probably fall within the definition of anti-Semitism adopted by the International Alliance for the Memory of the Shoah, endorsed by France in February 2019”, judges the Quai d’Orsay, who believes that it “will be up to the courts to determine whether they also justify criminal prosecution”.
The ministry adds that an administrative investigation will be carried out at the request of Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna into the conditions of his recruitment at the Quai d’Orsay. The minister “reaffirms with the greatest firmness that hatred, extremism and violence are by definition incompatible with participation, direct or indirect, in the conduct of France’s foreign policy,” concludes the press release.