As part of the France-Israel Crossed Year, Her Excellency Ms. Aliza BIN-NOUN, Ambassador of Israel to France and Monaco, visited Nice and was received by Christian Estrosi and the leaders of the Jewish community organizations, particularly numerous and influential in the Azurean city.
The particularly busy program began on Castle Hill with the unveiling of the plaque for the future Wall of the Deported, on which 3485 names will be engraved, names of people deported from Nice station between 1942 and 1944, including Simone Veil and Arno Klarsfeld, the father of Serge Klarsfeld.
This was followed by the laying of a wreath at the Memorial for the victims of July 14, 2016, at the Villa Masséna.
In the afternoon, the Ambassador chaired a conference at the CUM, during which the programs of the Israeli Agency for International Development Cooperation MASHAV were illustrated, before addressing the diversity and richness of exchanges and relations between France and Israel, existing partnerships with Nice, avenues for developing new exchanges in the academic, research, and innovation (smart city) fields.
2018 is also the year marking the 70th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, which was celebrated in the salons of the Villa Masséna in the presence of many guests, including Maurice Niddam, president of the consistory.
During the speeches, the ties of friendship between France and the State of Israel and the numerous collaborative relationships in various sectors between Nice and several Israeli cities, particularly the seaside city of Netanya, twinned with the Azurean capital, were recalled.
Only the more geopolitical parts of the remarks expressed by the two personalities should be considered as political statements with propagandistic tones, featuring a partisan reading of the news and, in some passages, history.
It’s good to say what people like to hear, but isn’t foreign policy a sovereign prerogative rather than a municipal one, especially in a diplomatic context?
