Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, a leading contender, says that under her leadership, dual French-Israeli citizens will have to choose between the two nationalities.

If elected, leading French presidential contender Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National party, will demand that those holding dual French-Israeli citizenship give up one of their nationalities.

“I am opposed to a policy allowing dual citizenship in [non-European] countries,” Le Pen stated during a two-hour interview on France 2 TV on Thursday.

As to whether such legislation would affect French Jews with dual citizenship, she answered in the affirmative, saying, “Israel is not a European country and doesn’t consider itself as such…

“I’m asking the Israelis to choose their nationality. It doesn’t mean that if they don’t choose French nationality, they have to leave. France can certainly accommodate foreign people on its soil long term…as long as they respect French laws and French values, which is often a problem on the immigration issue. It’s not really a problem with Israel on this topic.”

Banning the Kippah to Help Defeat Radical Islam?

In an interview with Channel 2 last Friday, discussing her plan to ban religious symbols in the public sphere, Le Pen stated her position that religious Jewish men must be prohibited from wearing a kippah – Hebrew for skullcap.

“Honestly, the dangerous situation in which Jews in France live is such that those who walk with a kippah are in any case a minority because they are afraid,” she stated, referring to the Islamic anti-Semitism and alarming rise in violence against Jews in the country in recent years.  “But I mainly think the struggle against radical Islam should be a joint struggle and everyone should say, ‘There, we are sacrificing something.’”

According to Le Pen, “Maybe they will do with just wearing a hat, but it would be a step in the effort to stamp out radical Islam in France.”

In 2015, Le Pen, in an effort to distance the National Front from its record of anti-Semitism, suspended her father, founder of the party, due to his remarks that trivialized the Holocaust.

Record-Breaking Aliyah from France

The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe and the second-largest in the world outside of Israel, numbering just under half a million Jews.

French-Jewish immigration to Israel has surged since 2012, breaking records for Aliyah from France and from Western countries more generally.

In total, nearly 10% of the French Jewish community has immigrated to Israel since the year 2000, half in the past five years alone, boosted by a surge in anti-Semitism and the advent of Islamic terror on the Continent.

The Jewish Agency reports that some 60,000 French Jews have expressed interest in immigrating to Israel in the coming years.

By: United with Israel Staff