French PM Valls: France will not boycott Israel

A French boycott of Israel is not on the table, Prime Minister Manuel Valls reassured MK Stav Shaffir (Zionist Union) at the French Socialist Party congress on Saturday. “France is not talking about a boycott and there won't be a boycott,” he said. “What concerns us is the situation in Gaza and the lack of progress toward a diplomatic solution.” Valls warned that if there is no peace agreement, terrorist organizations in the area, like Islamic State, could grow stronger. Shaffir represented the Zionist Union at the congress, where she met with government officials and parliamentarians to try to strengthen their ties with Israel. “I was happy to hear the French prime minister's commitment to French Jewry and to Israel, but I heard from other senior officials that they were very frustrated about our lack of diplomatic progress. Many of them say that they try to defend Israel to the public, but it is a hopeless situation,” she recounted. According to Shaffir, the officials do not believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is serious about wanting to end the conflict and that statements he made before the last election about Arabs going to the voting booths and not believing there will be a Palestinian state during his tenure only made things worse. “There wasn't one politician or journalist in France who didn't ask me about [Netanyahu's] zigzag before the election about his commitment to a diplomatic solution,” she said. “As long as Netanyahu is viewed as someone who refuses a solution of two states for two nations, our situation in the world won't improve... The world won't accept maintaining the status quo.”

French PM Valls: France will not boycott Israel

Shaffir represented the Zionist Union at the French Socialist Party congress.

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