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JERUSALEM: An Israeli minister came out in defense of French far-right politician Jordan Bardella on Tuesday, after an investigative website alleged that he had made antisemitic comments in 2013.<\/p>\n
Bardella, 31, is the de facto number two to the National Rally\u2019s (RN) Marine Le Pen, and is tipped to become prime minister if she is elected France\u2019s president next April.<\/p>\n
He has rejected the allegations, which were published by the website Mediapart.<\/p>\n
Bardella \u201cis one of the clearest voices in Europe against Hamas,\u201d Amichai Chikli, Israel\u2019s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, wrote on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe visited the Nova site and the communities of the Gaza envelope,\u201d he added, referring to areas in southern Israel that were ravaged by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza war.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe met survivors. He spoke in Jerusalem against antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The minister also posted an image of himself shaking Bardella\u2019s hand at the site of the Nova music festival massacre.<\/p>\n
According to Mediapart, Bardella wrote in a private chat in 2013, when he was 17 or 18, that Jews and Zionists have to \u201cdominate other peoples, crush them, and rob them,\u201d and that Israel is bent on creating a \u201cnew world order.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his defense of Bardella, Chikli attacked Mediapart, claiming that its co-founder Edwy Plenel supported Palestinian militants and \u201cstood with the men who murdered eleven Israeli athletes in Munich\u201d at the 1972 Olympics.<\/p>\n
Chikli, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing Likud party, also lashed out at current Mediapart president Carine Fouteau, claiming she \u201ccalls Israel a colonial state and wants sanctions for genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bardella is a savvy user of social media who projects a clean-cut image, and has been a key player in Le Pen\u2019s project of \u201cde-demonization\u201d to make the RN into an electable force.<\/p>\n
Both have moved to rid the party of the legacy of her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded and led what was then the National Front and repeatedly made antisemitic remarks.<\/p>\n
Bardella made an unprecedented visit to Israel in 2025, the first by a French far-right leader, in a bid to demonstrate the RN\u2019s new credentials.<\/p>\n
The visit was at the invitation of Chikli, who in recent years has cultivated ties with figures and parties from the European far right and hosted them in Israel, marking a shift away from Israel\u2019s traditional boycott of parties with suspected extremist and antisemitic views.<\/p>\n
The allegations against Bardella emerged as Le Pen\u2019s prospects for the 2027 elections appear stronger than at any point in her previous campaigns.<\/p>\n
Bardella accused what he called an \u201cactivist media\u201d of conducting a smear campaign \u201cto destabilize the presidential campaign and attack my honor.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n