Israeli President Rivlin Calls Out Le Pen On Holocaust Remarks

Reuven Rivlin Image by getty images

By Naomi Zeveloff April 25, 2017

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin used Holocaust Remembrance Day to lash out at Marine Le Pen, the far right nationalist French leader who came in second in the first round of voting in the French presidential election.

Without naming Le Pen, Rivlin referred to a “French presidential candidate” who “denied France’s responsibility for the deportation of its Jewish citizens to the Nazi concentration and death camps,” said Rivlin in his speech at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot in the Galilee on Monday.

Rivlin was referring to an interview Le Pen gave on RTL radio earlier this month saying that France was not responsible for the round up of 13,000 Jews in 1942 at the Vel d’Hiv cycling stadium before they were shipped off to Nazi death camps.

Responsibility lied, she said, with the people who committed the the atrocity at the time, but not with the nation of France.

The Israel Foreign Ministry called the remarks “contrary to historical truth.”

Rivlin said that the trend across Europe to minimize crimes against Jews during the Holocaust was dangerous.

“The denial of responsibility of the crimes committed in the days of the Second World War is Holocaust denial of a new, more destructive and dangerous kind from that we have known until now,” he said.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff

Naomi Zeveloff is the former Middle East correspondent of the Forward, primarily covering Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO