Bernard Kouchner was Foreign Minister from 2007 to 2010 under President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“How can you not be anti-Semitic when you see the damage done by the Israeli army? Look at Gaza, it’s a field of murder and disaster. Families are breaking up,” declared former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

He made the controversial comment in an interview on Sunday with Paris Jewish radio Radio J.

He added, “of course there were Hamas attacks on October 7. And God knows if that revolted me. But to take revenge with 40,000 dead, if the figure is true,”  before being interrupted by the journalist, Frédéric Haziza. “You’re saying with what’s happening in Gaza, it’s normal to be anti-Semitic?,” he asked him. “It’s not normal, but the reaction can be that,” answered Kouchner, who was Foreign Minister from 2007 to 2010 under President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“Anti-Semitism is the science of fools. It’s a very deep-seated evil. France has always been anti-Semitic,” he added.

Criticizing Israel’s’’disproportionate war” waged by Israel in Gaza, he said that as a former humanitarian Doctor (he founded  the Médecins du Monde organisation)  he could not help but feel indignant. “A lot of people have been massacred. It’s a murderous reaction. I’m not satisfied with that,” he said. “I’ve spent my life caring for people”.

Since the Hamas’ attack on Israel, anti-Semitic acts jumped by 1000% in the last quarter of 2023. Since the start of 2024, they have almost tripled, with “887 acts ” recorded in the first half of the year, according to  figures from the French ministry of Interior.