French President: 'Anti-Zionism is a new form of anti-Semitism'

Via Israel Hayom:

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday denounced France's collaboration in the Holocaust, lashing out at those who negate or minimize the country's role in sending tens of thousands of Jews to their deaths. He also condemned anti-Zionism as a new form of anti-Semitism and vowed to fight both.

Macron and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a ceremony commemorating 75 years since the Vel' d'Hiv roundup, the mass arrest of 13,152 French Jews in July 1942 as part of the Nazi effort to eradicate the Jews of France.

Calling the period the darkest chapter of modern French history, Macron forcefully denounced Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism and accepted France's responsibility in the event.

"Time does its work. Archives open; the truth comes out. It's stark, irrevocable. It imposes itself on us all. ... It is indeed France that organized [the roundup]. Not a single German [took part]," he said. "It was indeed France. And thus 13,152 people of the Jewish faith were dragged from their homes between the 16th and 17th of July, 1942, to their deaths. Among them, 4,115 children between ages of 2 and 6, whom we are especially honoring today."

Macron dismissed arguments by French far-right leaders and others that the collaborationist Vichy regime did not represent France.

"It is convenient to see the Vichy regime as born of nothingness, returned to nothingness," he said. "Yes, it's convenient, but it is false. We cannot build pride upon a lie."

Later, in a clear reference to far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron denounced "politicians who are prepared to reverse the truth. ... We will never surrender to the messages of hate; we will not surrender to anti-Zionism, because it is a reinvention of anti-Semitism."

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