French Phone Company Vows To Join Boycott of Israel
The CEO of a major French telecommunications company said he would cut ties with an Israeli partner “tomorrow” if it could do so without incurring financial penalties.
Stephane Richard of Orange SA, a mobile phone firm in which the French government is a 25 percent shareholder, said at a news conference in Cairo Wednesday that his company will leave Israel as soon as possible, according to reports.
Orange is franchised under a long-term contract to Partner Communications Ltd. in Israel, which is owned by Egyptian-born Hollywood entertainment tycoon Haim Saban, and has come under fire from French human rights groups because it provides communications services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Wednesday night called on Richard to take back his remarks regarding what amounts to a boycott of Israel.
“I call on you to refrain from taking part in the industry of lies directed against Israel,” Hotovely wrote in a letter to Richard, adding, “I am sure that these reports do not reflect the intentions of your company, and call on you to clarify the issue as soon as possible.”
Israel’s ambassador to France, Yossi Gal, in conversations with France’s Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry, asked the French government to renounce the remarks, according to reports.
Chaim Romano, the head of Partner Communications, on Thursday threatened legal action against Richard, saying his statements could hurt the Israeli company. At least one Israeli business announced on Thursday that it would cancel its cell phone service from Partner-Orange. Partner also reportedly considering ending its agreement with Orange, for which it pays millions of dollars a year.
Orange reportedly has been pressured by Arab countries to stop doing business with Israel.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
