Charles Kushner, the U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco, leaves the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris after a meeting with the French President on July 18, 2025. Credit - Ludovic Marin—AFP/Getty Images France has summoned U.S. envoy Charles Kushner after the ambassador accused the French government of fuelling antisemitism through its criticisms of Israel. In anop-edpublished Sunday in theWall Street Journaltitled "A Letter to Emmanuel Macron," Kushner argued that France failed to rein in a "dramatic rise of antisemitism," pointing to the French government'sreproachof Israel's military offensive in Gaza. Kushner also cited the Trump Administration'sdeportation record,targetingofstudentsandadministrationsat universities wherepro-Palestinian protestshad taken place, andbombing of Iranian nuclear facilitiesas examples of effective measures to counter antisemitism. "Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France. In today's world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism—plain and simple," Kushner, who is Jewish, wrote. France's foreign ministry refuted the allegations and said it would summon Kushner on Monday. Here's what to know. The President Donald Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador to France is the father of Jared Kushner, a former White House senior adviser during Trump's first term and the husband of Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka. Trumpdescribedthe elder Kushner as "a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker" on Truth Social when he announced he would nominate him for the ambassadorship last November. Kushner, who is 71 years old, founded real estate firm Kushner Companies in 1985. He served two years in federal prison for tax evasion, making illegal campaign donations, and witness tampering after pleading guilty to 18 counts in 2005. Prosecutorsallegedthat he had conspired and participated in a scheme to intimidate his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with the investigation as a witness. Trump pardoned Kushner in 2020. Kushner said at his confirmation hearing in May that he was "dedicated to building an even stronger relationship" between the U.S. and France at a time when the Trump Administration is seeking to balance global trade dynamics throughtariffsand pushing its allies to increase their defense spending. "I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it," Kushner wrote in the op-ed, which has beensharedon social media by Israel's foreign ministry. Kushner alleged that "pro-Hamas extremists and radical activists have waged a campaign of intimidation and violence across Europe," including defacing synagogues, assaulting Jewish people, and vandalizing Jewish-owned businesses. Kushner also cited a report thatnearly halfof French youthlacked knowledge about the Holocaust. "What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?" (Anationwide survey in the U.S.in 2020 showed more than half of respondents did not have basic knowledge of the Holocaust.) "President Trump and I have Jewish children and share Jewish grandchildren. I know how he feels about antisemitism, as do all Americans," Kushner said, pointing to the Trump Administration'scrackdownon non-citizens who have expressed pro-Palestinian sentiments. (Trump himself has beencriticizedfor usingantisemitic slurs,backing peoplewithtiestowhite supremacyor records ofantisemitism, andusing antisemitism as a scapegoatfor broader crackdowns on immigration and free speech.) The French foreign ministry said in astatementon Sunday that Kushner's allegations are "unacceptable." The ministry said the statements violate a principle of international law that bars ambassadors from interfering in the host country's internal affairs. "They also fall short of the quality of the transatlantic relationship between France and the United States and the trust that should result from it between allies," the ministry said. Summoning a diplomat to a host country is a diplomatic gesture typically to convey concern or anger. "You are asked to go, normally to the director, and you have to hear what they have to say, and at the same time, you have the right to express your position," Ilir Bocka, the Albanian ambassador to Serbia,told the BBC. "It's a symbol of serious political will," John Casson, former U.K. envoy to Egypt, added. "But not on its own—it needs to be backed up by other stuff." BothantisemiticandIslamophobic incidentshaverisenin France and across the world sinceIsrael's war in Gazabegan after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel by Hamas, which killed over 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. In France, antisemitic attacks in the past year have included vandalism of the country's national Holocaust memorial, synagogues, and a Jewish-owned restaurant, according to theU.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as thevandalismof Israeli airline El Al's Paris office and thedestructionof a commemorative olive tree meant to honor a French Jew who was murdered in 2006. The French foreign ministry said in its statement responding to Kushner that rising antisemitism "is a reality that we deplore and against which the French authorities are demonstrating total mobilization." Globally, there has beengrowing debateover whether anti-Zionist or anti-Israel rhetoric should be considered antisemitic, as the Anti-Defamation Leaguereportedthat Israel-related incidents made up 58% of the total incidents of antisemitism in the U.S. last year. Some havecriticizedthelabellingof pro-Palestinian demonstrations as antisemitic. Francesaidin July that it plans torecognize a Palestinian stateat the United Nations general assembly in September. There has been growing international condemnation of Israel for its ongoingmilitary bombardment of Gazaand outcry over whatseveral humanitarian organizationshave called agenocidein Gaza. "The military offensive in Gaza that Israel is preparing can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war," Macronpostedon X last week. The war in Gaza has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians and nearly 2,000 Israelis (including those killed in the Oct. 7 attack), according to Gaza's Health Ministry, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, Gaza's Health Ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently verified by TIME. Data from the IDF suggests aPalestinian civilian death rate of 83%. Israelcondemned Francefor its decision to recognize Palestinian statehood, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that it "rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became." The U.S. also rejected France's decision. Several more countries, including the U.K. and Australia, have since also announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state. France hascondemnedIsrael'skillingofPalestinians seeking aid,aid workers, andjournalists. France was also among several European countries tosummontheir Israeli ambassadors after IDF soldiers fired "warning shots" near a delegation of visiting diplomats in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in May. That month, France, Canada, and the U.K. alsocondemnedIsraeli's military expansion in Gaza, its blockade of humanitarian aid, and the forced displacement of Palestinians. The diplomatic row between the U.S. and France has come days after Macron reportedlyrejectedNetanyahu'sclaimthat antisemitism in France has "surged" after the French government announced its plans to recognize a Palestinian state. "It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas's refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace French Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets," Netanyahu said in an Aug. 17 letter to Macron. Macron's office responded in a statement late last Tuesday, saying that Netanyahu's claim is "erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered," according to news outlets. "The current period," Macron reportedly said, "calls for seriousness and responsibility, not generalisation and manipulation." Contact usatletters@time.com.
