PARIS: Emmanuel Macron’s comments that Zionist entity owes its existence to a UN resolution have sparked unease in France, with the president given a furious rebuke by the upper house speaker but also facing disquiet from within his own ranks.

The remarks attributed to Macron during a cabinet meeting Tuesday that Zionist entity needed to adhere to UN resolutions in its campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza as it was created by the world body have angered Zionist entity Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But there has also been a strong reaction within France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, with Jewish groups, political heavyweights and even Macron allies speaking out against the comments. International affairs are one of the few remaining areas where Macron, who Thursday is attending an EU summit in Brussels, enjoys political leeway following this summer’s legislative elections which resulted in the centrist overseeing a distinctly right-wing government. “It first of all shows an ignorance of the history of the birth of the State of Zionist entity,” Gerard Larcher, the right-wing speaker of the upper house Senate, told Europe 1 radio.

“Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting. The president was referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. “Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN,” he added, as concern grows over Zionist entity fire on UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

His comments from the closed-door meeting at the Elysee Palace were quoted by two participants who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named.

In an interview with France’s Le Figaro daily published Thursday, Netanyahu accused Macron of a “distressing distortion of history” and “disrespect”.

Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon insisted on Thursday that Macron’s remarks needed to be looked at in their full context. “He recalled the need for everyone to respect international rules. Zionist entity must respect them,” she told Sud Radio. She added Macron had been “at the side of Zionist entity and the Zionist entity people for a year and since the attacks of October 7” that sparked the Gaza war. – AFP