French historian Vincent Lemire says Israel briefly revoked his travel permit

Paris: A French historian said Monday he had been banned from travelling to Israel after he criticised Israeli military operations in Gaza, but then received authorisation to travel in the evening.

Vincent Lemire was head of the French Research Centre in Jerusalem from 2019 to August 2023, before Gaza war.

The academic has since publicly spoken out about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for France to sanction Israel over the conflict’s mounting death toll. He has also called for the release of Israeli hostages.

He was due to travel to Israel on Sunday with a two-year electronic travel authorisation for the country (ETA-IL) he obtained last year, but four days earlier received an email telling him it had been “revoked”, he said on Monday, adding he was “surprised”.

“I have never boycotted Israel. I have regularly issued invitations to Israeli academics and I have been going to Israel for 25 years,” Lemire told AFP.

But he was then sent another email in the afternoon, which stated that he could enter the country after all, he said later in the day.

“I’m leaving tomorrow morning,” he said.

The Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lemire’s ban comes after Israel earlier this month banned 37 foreign humanitarian organisations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.

Lemire and former Israeli ambassador to France Elie Barnavi in August urged President Emmanuel Macron in French daily newspaper Le Monde to slap sanctions on Israel to avoid having to recognise a “graveyard” as a Palestinian state.

Macron recognised Palestinian statehood in September, before a fragile ceasefire took hold in Gaza the following month.