“Richard Ferrand, likely future minister of Macron, finances the hatred of the Jews,” claimed www.dreuz.info on April 25. This site, which claims to be “conservative, Christian and pro-Israel”, denounced the funding granted by the deputy of Finistère “with its 2016 parliamentary reserve” to the France Palestine Solidarity Association (AFPS), labelling the association as both “anti-Zionist” and “anti-Semitic “.
Although the AFPS criticizes Israeli policy, it does not contest Israel’s right to exist, and the donation made by the secretary-general of En Marche!, to the amount of 2,000 euros, concerns only one humanitarian project carried out by the association founded in France in May 2001.
To support its accusations of anti-Zionism, www.dreuz.info noted that the AFPS supported the call for a boycott of Israeli products by the BDS movement (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions), declared illegal by the French justice system, and accused of “complacency towards Hamas”.
It fails, however, to specify that the AFPS is part of the National Collective for a Just and Sustainable Peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
In its statutes, the AFPS further states that its purpose is “to work for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East based on the recognition of the national rights of the Palestinian people on the basis of international law” .
Richard Ferrand, the right-hand man of Emmanuel Macron, reacted on his blog on March 26, 2017, soon after the rumor appeared in other publications.
“I donated € 2,000 of ‘my’ parliamentary reserve to support a project of providing equipment for a class of girls in the camp of El Aroub in Palestine,” he said in his post: “To finish a rumor from the fachosphere “.
“This territory is twinned with the commune of Carhaix located in my electoral district (I live in Motreff, the village immediately next door) .The project was carried by the central Brittany branch of the France-Palestine Association, through its head Jean-Pierre Jeudy, honorary mayor, retired professor, as well as with various people involved in local community life,” he added.
