Four months to the day after Hamas's terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, President Emmanuel Macron will pay tribute to the French victims in a ceremony on Wednesday, February 7. The hommage will take place at the Hôtel des Invalides, where each of the 42 French citizens who lost their lives will be represented by a photograph bearing their name, most of them having been buried in Israel. It will be "placed under the universal sign of the fight against anti-Semitism and through it (...) all forms of hatred, racism and oppression towards minorities," said Macron's office, the Elysée Palace. The event, to which former French presidents have been invited, will also focus on the four French hostages freed by Hamas and the six French citizens wounded on October 7. Israeli President Isaac Herzog will not be present because of a scheduling conflict, but will be represented by the Israeli embassy in Paris.
The nation's tribute to "Jewish French citizens" was originally intended to take place once all the hostages had been freed, but that is still not the case. The Elysée Palace explained that it had no information to provide concerning the hostages, particularly in terms of "proof of life."
Wednesday's ceremony, which will be held under very tight security, found itself at the heart of a political controversy in the days building up to it. After the attacks of October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,160 people, most of them civilians, the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI) refused to call Hamas a "terrorist" group. LFI lawmaker Danièle Obono described Hamas simply as a "resistance movement."
Consequently, in a letter sent to Macron last Tuesday, several families from the No Silence group requested that no LFI officials be present at the ceremony at Les Invalides. "Between indecency, lack of respect, relativism and Holocaust denial, La France Insoumise and its spokespeople have distinguished themselves by some extremely serious remarks since the October 7 pogrom," they condemned in their letter. The families accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon's party of "bearing a very heavy responsibility for the explosion of Judeophobia" in the country.
The Elysée replied on Monday that it would be a "republican ceremony" to which, in accordance with protocol in force since 1989, members of parliament are invited. An adviser to the president said: "It's up to each of us to decide whether or not to attend, since the families have spoken out and expressed their strong feelings." Macron, who was criticized by the Jewish community for his refusal to take part in the march against anti-Semitism on November 12, 2023, will deliver "a very clear speech," which "will perhaps make the LFI lawmakers think and ponder," added the same adviser.
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