Question 24793 — foreign policy

Summary

Mr. Meyer Habib draws the attention of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to the fact that the tomb of the kings, attached to the French national domain in the Holy Land, is an integral part of the religious, historical and spiritual heritage of the Jewish people. Illustrious figures from ancient Israel are buried there, in particular Queen Helena of Adiabene and Kalba Savoua and Nakdimon Ben-Gurion, mentioned in the Talmud. Without going into all the details of this eminently complex affair, Mrs. Berthe Amélie Bertrand, née Levy, cousin of the Pereire brothers, acquired the tomb of the kings in 1874 on the advice of the Grand Rabbi of France at the time, Lazare Isidor. Given the ban on Jews, and particularly Jewish women, from purchasing real estate under the Ottoman occupation, the site was purchased via the French consul in Jerusalem at the time, Mr. Salvator Patrimonio. Mme Berthe Amélie Bertrand then donated it by certified deed to the local consistory, or Hekdesh of Jerusalem, “in memory of his ancestors and in order to preserve it from any desecration”. The tomb of the kings then entered the French national domain in 1886 after a donation from the Pereire brothers. The legal capacity of donors to carry out the act is today contested in court. In any case, at the time of the donation, the French government undertook to respect the following obligation displayed at the entrance to the site: "Monument acquired in the year 1878 by Émile and Isaac Pereire, to preserve it for science, for the veneration of the faithful children of Israel, on the advice of Mr. F. de Soulcy, member of the Institut de France and by the care of Mr. S. Patrimonio, Consul of France in Jerusalem." However, on October 15, 2019 during the current affairs session in the Senate, the Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs declared that France was "the sole owner" of the tomb of the kings without considering it useful to specify the Jewish character of this holy place located in the heart of Jerusalem. This official position shocked many French people, of all origins, attached to historical truth. This is why, notwithstanding the question of property which is the subject of dispute, the MP asks at least the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to expressly recognize the religious vocation of the tomb of the kings for the Jewish people, as is the case for the Catholic religion with regard to the other possessions of the French national domain in the holy land (Eléona, the monastery of Abou Gosh and the church of Sainte-Anne). He reminds him that he addressed this same question to the Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, during his open hearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee on November 5, 2019, and that the latter was unable to answer it.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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