An official at the Israeli Embassy in Paris worked to disrupt the visit of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to France for the OECD conference last week.
Channel 12 News reported that an official at the Israeli embassy actively contacted the heads of the major Jewish organizations in France and asked them to demonstrate against the minister during his stay in Paris and to avoid meeting with him to protest against the Israeli government’s planned judicial reforms.

During his visit to Paris last week, Smotorch visited the Hypercacher supermarket in Paris, the site of a 2015 antisemitic terrorist attack in which four people were murdered.
“Immediately after landing in Paris, it was important for me to come here, to Hypercacher, to the place where the terrible attack that claimed the lives of four people took place in January 2015,” Smotrich said. “I came here to strengthen and embrace the Jewish community in Paris. What makes us special as the Jewish people and as a sovereign state is the special connection we have with every Jew in the world.”
“I stand here today as a member of the Israeli government which is committed to strengthening our relationship with the Jewish communities and strengthening Jewish identity. Out of mutual commitment, we work to connect all parts of our people wherever they are. The connection is unbreakable and it does not depend on place of origin, opinion or anything else. Am Yisrael Chai (the people of Israel lives),” he said.