Emmanuel Macron is booed over the situation in Gaza, during a crowd bath in Montreal

During his visit to Canada, pro-Palestinian demonstrators questioned the president on France’s position on the conflict in Gaza. He responded by defending the mediator position that France wants to take.

While the war continues in Lebanon, with new massive strikes by Israel, the head of state completed a trip to North America with a stopover in Montreal, Canada, Thursday, September 26, where he was strongly questioned during an impromptu crowd bath. Emmanuel Macron has once again tried to defend the mediator position that France wants to take.

Originally, he was just supposed to cross the street, after a press conference with Justin Trudeau. “Shame on you!”shouts a demonstrator. Emmanuel Macron stops, bravado, to once again justify France’s position in front of a dozen people who apostrophize him. “It’s genocide, if you can’t stop it, resign!” says a young woman who tells him that her daughter died in Gaza, that Hamas is a resistance movement. Emmanuel Macron defends himself, in English: no, France does not sell weapons to Israel, no, Hamas is not a resistance movement: “They killed hundreds of people,” he replies. He endeavors to respond to the accusations, recalling that he is pleading for a ceasefire: “We went to the Security Council for this”.

“I get yelled at for Palestine, he later told reporters. If only they knew how hard we fight to make things better.” Proof that the president has the feeling of trying everything.“There is a real emotion in all our societies, he said. We see this clearly in Gaza, the images there, the humanitarian drama playing out there. But first I tried to say what we were doing. And because there is also, alongside this emotion, a lot of confusion. You know, I share this emotion when I see the images, but I can’t let everything and anything be said.”

A frustration all the more palpable since a few minutes earlier, at a press conference, Emmanuel Macron gave the impression of toughening his tone by declaring that he was opposed to what “Lebanon becomes a new Gaza”when Israel remains deaf to the international call for a ceasefire. “I think that the proposal that was made and that was prepared, negotiated with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his teams, is a solid proposal, recalls the president. It was not made in the air and I think it would be a mistake on the part of the Prime Minister to refuse it because he would take responsibility for an escalation that no one could control.”

Emmanuel Macron says he is ready to request a new meeting of the United Nations Security Council, to speak directly with the Israeli Prime Minister in the coming hours. At the risk of nothing changing and having your helplessness thrown back in your face.