French President Emmanuel Macron confronted Israeli security forces in the Old City of Jerusalem when he entered the Church of Saint Anne on Wednesday.
Coup de colère de #Macron contre la police israélienne à Jérusalem. Dans les pas de Chirac en 1996 pic.twitter.com/DKP5ICThTK
— Ava Djamshidi (@AvaDjamshidi) January 22, 2020
Macron ordered the men to leave the site. "Go outside," the president said to security. "I'm sorry, you know the rules. Nobody has to provoke nobody."The reason is that the church is, legally speaking, French-held territory like an embassy and is under the protection of the French Republic. The Israeli security officers have no more reason to enter the site with him than they would to enter his plane upon his return to France. There is a precedent for this happening.When former President Jacques Chirac visited Jerusalem's Olc City in 1996, he lost patience with the Israeli security agents who were pressing him to move on, telling one of them that his treatment was a "provocation" and threatening to get back on his plane. He refused to enter St. Anne until Israeli security left the site.