French President Emmanuel Macron gave Israeli police officers a tongue-lashing in Jerusalem, after the cops entered the French Church of St. Anne in the city’s old quarter.
Footage shared on social media captured the altercation, which took place during Macron’s visit to the Crusader-era church on Wednesday. Though situated in the Old City of Jerusalem, the church belongs to the French government, and Israeli officers had apparently tried to enter the premises ahead of Macron.
“Everybody knows the rules!” Macron shouted, speaking English. “I don’t like what you did in front of me. Go out!”
Coup de colère de #Macron contre la police israélienne à Jérusalem. Dans les pas de Chirac en 1996 pic.twitter.com/DKP5ICThTK
— Ava Djamshidi (@AvaDjamshidi) January 22, 2020
“Please respect the rules as they were for centuries,” he continued. “They will not change with me.”
Macron is not the first French leader driven to anger by Israeli security. During a 1996 visit to the Old City, Jacques Chirac snapped at the armed Israeli police surrounding him and preventing Palestinians from approaching him. “I’m starting to have had enough of this,” he shouted in French. “What, do you want me to go back to my plane and go back to France? Is that what you want?”
At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the increased security was necessary following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a year earlier. Critics in the media disagreed, saying it was intended to demonstrate to Chirac that Israel was firmly in control of the city’s historic quarter, where the vast majority of the population are Palestinian.
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Source: RT