France's President Emmanuel Macron will allow Israeli companies to attend this year's Paris Air Show, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said after a call Sunday, January 26, between the two leaders. "The French president assured the prime minister that Israeli companies would be able to participate in the Paris Air Show," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
The pair fell out last year after Macron tried to restrict Israeli businesses at a French arms fair and called for a halt to weapons exports to the country over the Gaza war. The effort to put restrictions on the exhibitors was ultimately blocked by a court.
The Paris Air Show, which takes place during odd-numbered years at the French capitals' Le Bourget airport, is one of the world's most important aerospace events for both civil and military companies. This year's event is in mid-June.
Last October, after Macron's government said it would prevent Israeli companies from exhibiting at the Euronaval arms show, then-Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant called his actions "a disgrace to the French nation and the values of the free world." The week before, the French president had called for stopping weapons exports to Israel, saying it was the only way to bring to an end its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Netanyahu said at the time that Israel was fighting "the forces of barbarism... [and] all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel's side. Yet, President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them."
Macron's administration had also tried to restrict Israeli companies at a land defense and security exhibition five months earlier, but the decision was likewise overturned by the French courts.