Sarkozy talks with Israel’s former president Shimon Peres after a meeting in the coastal city of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, yesterday.

AFP
Jerusalem

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday slammed attempts to boycott Israel as “unacceptable”, weighing in on a row between the Jewish state and telecoms giant Orange.
The company’s CEO Stephane Richard last week said it intends to withdraw its brand from Israel, just weeks after a report accusing Orange of indirectly supporting settlement activity on occupied territory through its relationship with Israel’s Partner Communications.
“I do not want to be involved in controversy. I know that Stephane Richard will come here to explain himself,” Sarkozy told reporters on a business-focused visit to Jerusalem.  
“The boycott of Israel is unacceptable. I’m not saying there was a desire by the company (Orange) to boycott, but I will say that it is not this way that we will make peace,” he said.
Richard’s remarks in Cairo infuriated Israel, which accused him of bowing to a Palestinian-led boycott campaign.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “miserable action” of Orange and urged the French government, which partly controls the firm, to publicly renounce his remarks.
Richard said it was purely a business decision, not political, and later insisted Orange was in Israel “to stay”.
Yesterday, Richard said he was “radically opposed” to any trade boycott of Israel.  
“It was never the question for a second that Orange would withdraw from Israel,” he told French TV station BFMTV.
He confirmed he would travel to Israel soon following an invitation from Netanyahu.  
Netanyahu said yesterday that the boycott campaign sought the “elimination” of the Jewish state.   
“I think it’s important that the international community stop giving the Palestinians a free pass,” Netanyahu said after meeting Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek.
“They’re engaging in BDS, which calls for the elimination of Israel,” said Netanyahu of the grassroots Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Netanyahu cited what he called “one of the leaders” of BDS as stating that its real aim was “to bring down the State of Israel”.  
The international community regards all Israeli construction on Palestinian land seized during the 1967 Six-Day War as illegal.