The Israeli government has issued a furious response to French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's remarks on Sunday in which she denied France's responsibility for a mass arrest of Jews in Paris during World War II. "This declaration is contrary to historical truth, as expressed in the statements of successive French presidents who recognized France's responsibility for the fate of the French Jews who perished in the Holocaust," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Monday, the eve of Passover. "This recognition underpins the annual events marking the anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from France and the study of the Holocaust in the education system, both of which are important elements in the battle against anti-Semitism, which unfortunately is once again raising its head," the statement said. Some 13,000 Jews were deported by French police on July 16 and 17, 1942, many of whom were first detained under harsh conditions at the Velodrome d'Hiver indoor cycling stadium. In all, about 75,000 Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps from France during World War II. Only 2,500 survived. Le Pen's comments, which appeared at odds with years of efforts to make her once-pariah National Front more palatable to mainstream voters, also drew fire in France. "I think France isn't responsible for the Vel d'Hiv," Le Pen said on Sunday, referring to the Nazi-ordered roundup by French police in Velodrome d'Hiver. "I think that, in general, if there are people responsible, it is those who were in power at the time. It is not France," she said in an interview with media groups Le Figaro, RTL and LCI. While her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the National Front until he passed the baton to his daughter in 2011, reveled in minimizing the Holocaust, Marine Le Pen has sought to purge the party of anti-Semitism and even expelled her father from it because of his comments. By reopening a debate about the state's role under the Nazi occupation, she touched a raw nerve. In a sign of how sensitive her comments have become, "Vel d'Hiv" was the top trending topic on Twitter in France on Monday, the first official day of election campaigning. "This brings back the old demons of the far Right," Jerome Fourquet, a pollster with the French Institute of Public Opinion, said. "This could cost her in terms of voting intentions at a time when the gap between candidates is tightening." French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld said he hoped France would recognize "this realignment of Marine Le Pen with her father." Opinion polls have for months seen Le Pen securing a top-two spot in the April 23 first round but latest surveys show a tightening of support for the four leading candidates. Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron are still seen making it to the May 7 runoff, with Macron winning. Le Pen's rivals also pounced on her comments. "It's a political and historical error," Macron told a news conference. "This is the true face of the French far Right." Late Sunday, Le Pen issued a statement saying she considered the French state was in exile in London during the occupation and that her stance "in no way exonerates the effective and personal responsibility of the French people who took part in the horrible Vel d'Hiv roundup and in all the atrocities committed during this period." On Monday, Le Pen made a reference to a "new anti-Semitism" in a speech, without revisiting her Sunday remark.
