Israel bars French far-left leaders Melenchon and Panot in tit-for-tat entry ban

Israel has barred two senior figures from France's far-left La France Insoumise party from entering the country, retaliating after French authorities blocked the head of the Samaria Regional Council from entering France last week.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, who also serves as interior minister, announced on Thursday that LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and Mathilde Panot, who heads the party's parliamentary faction, would be denied entry to Israel.

The move followed France's decision to bar Yossi Dagan, who leads the Samaria Regional Council in the northern West Bank. A French Foreign Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post that Dagan was subject to an administrative ban "due to his active role in implementing the settlement policy in the West Bank".

In announcing the restrictions, Israel's Foreign Ministry pointed to what it called LFI's "extreme anti-Israel policy" and condemned statements made by senior party officials, including Melenchon and Panot.

Melenchon, a prominent figure on France's far left, has increasingly placed Israel at the center of his political agenda ahead of the country's 2027 presidential election. Speaking at an LFI convention on November 7, he pledged that a government led by his party would take a more confrontational line toward Israel, including possibly sending French naval vessels to escort pro-Palestinian flotillas seeking to reach the Gaza Strip.

"We will act head-on to help the Palestinians, not only against the genocide in Gaza, but against the gradual annexation of the West Bank," Melenchon said. "French ships, like those of Italy and Spain, if necessary, will escort the flotillas of mobilized citizens to assert the rights of the people," he added.

LFI's newly released presidential platform also calls for sanctions against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the suspension of the European Union's Association Agreement with Israel, which governs political and economic relations between Israel and the EU. The platform further proposes exploring alternatives to the traditional two-state solution, including the possibility of a binational state based on equal rights.

Melenchon and his party have also drawn criticism over their response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel. On the day of the attacks, Melenchon wrote on X that "violence only produces and reproduces itself." An initial LFI statement described the massacre as an "armed offensive by Palestinian forces led by Hamas," framing the violence in the context of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories.

The party was subsequently criticized for refusing to explicitly designate Hamas as a terrorist organization. It eventually condemned the October 7 attacks as a terrorist act on the first anniversary of the massacre in October 2024.

Thursday's announcement marks a further escalation in diplomatic tensions between Israel and France, with the Israeli government presenting its decision as a response both to the restrictions imposed on Dagan and to what it considers hostile rhetoric and policies promoted by LFI leaders. "Israel will respond firmly to anyone who harms it and will not allow entry to individuals who act and incite against it and its citizens," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.