French National Front official visits Israel, meets Young Likud chair

The secretary-general of France’s National Front party, Nicolas Bay, arrived in Israel on Wednesday, for a visit during which he will meet with Young Likud chair David Shayan.

According to Haaretz, Bay’s visit “was deliberately kept quiet, almost secret”, and it was organised by “a Jewish activist in the National Front.” The purpose of the trip “is to meet French citizens living in Israel in an effort to enlist the support of French Jewry, and to meet Israeli politicians.”

The paper notes that “the Israeli government officially boycotts the National Front, many of whose members hold anti-Semitic views.”

Bay is reportedly not meeting with members of the Israeli government, but Shayan is “a leading Likud activist who in the past served as an adviser to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and to former minister Yossi Peled.”

Haaretz describes Bay’s visit to Israel as “part of a comprehensive effort in recent years by the extreme right-wing parties in Europe to get closer to Israel.”

“Like Austria’s Freedom Party, the National Front sees relations with Israel as a way to gain legitimacy both within France and on the international scene. Some of these parties, which support racist, anti-Islamic policies and oppose the European Union, have found a sympathetic ear among certain elements of the Israeli right.”