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Chirac warns Israeli envoy to control Jewish extremists
PARIS, 12 April ? French President Jacques Chirac has summoned Israeli Ambassador Eli Barnavi to the Elysee Palace, in an effort ? says a presidential adviser ? to persuade him to better control the activities on French soil of pro-Israeli activists.
Chirac later telephoned Leila Shahid, the Palestinian representative to France who was absent from Paris, to advise her of his conversation with Barnavi.
President Chirac, according to the aide, let it be known to Barnavi ?in no uncertain terms? that he was adamantly opposed to all attempts by Israel, to ?import onto French soil,? in Chirac?s words, Israel?s war with Palestine.
Although Barnavi has repeatedly distanced himself from the activities in France of pro-Israeli activists as well as Jewish extremists, Chirac, says the aide, ?is convinced that the Israeli ambassador has the means of better controlling the extremists,? some of whom are specially trained in combat camps located in Israel as well as in France.
The aide said that Chirac, who has attempted until now to ?stay above? the conflict, at least as it applies to France, was quite angered by the pro-Israel marches organized Sunday afternoon by a number of French Jewish organizations, notably the CRIF (Conseil Representatif des Institutions Juives de France), which did not hide its intention of turning the manifestation into a show of support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
This Is How The French Media Reported The Same Meeting
The continuation of the operations of the Israeli army in the West Bank and the intransigence expressed by Ariel Sharon caused yesterday a salvo of criticisms in Europe. Jacques Chirac, who had convened, in the Elysium, the ambassador of Israel in France, Eli Barnavi, evoked "the exceptional gravity of the situation in the Middle East", underlining "how much the formulated requirements, on several occasions and unanimously, by the Security Council of UNO were to be respected". The head of the State also telephoned Leïla Shahid, representing PLO in France currently in displacement in Gaza, so that it asks Yasser Arafat "to make the gestures necessary for the cease-fire" and "definitively to stop the terrorist attacks" against the Israeli population.
Link in French
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