An Israeli rabbi who issued a death warning to French President Emmanuel Macron over France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state has been reported to the French justice system.
In a YouTube sermon, Rabbi Daniel David Cohen called Macron’s 24 July policy shift of recognizing a Palestinian state not just an attack on the Jewish people but a “declaration of war on God,” claiming divine authority over the land of Israel.
“This French president, we must let him know, he has every interest in preparing his coffin,” Cohen said, likening Macron to Roman Emperor Titus, who according to rabbinic tradition died from divine retribution.
Cohen further suggested France would collapse like Iran and urged Jews to flee the country before its downfall.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced that he had reported Cohen’s remarks to prosecutors and moved to block the video’s circulation. The Paris Prosecutor’s Office has since opened an investigation.
Chief Rabbi of France Haim Korsia condemned Cohen’s comments as “intolerable,” stressing that Cohen has “never held a rabbinical position in France” and was neither trained nor certified by the French rabbinical school.
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), also denounced the threats as “hateful and unacceptable,” adding they had “no connection” to official Jewish institutions in the country.
Jewish educational platform Torah-Box, which had previously hosted some of Cohen’s teachings, said it had never published the incriminating video and removed him from its contributor list over the weekend.
According to a 2023 profile on Rav Dori Connection, Cohen was born in Algeria, moved to France after the end of French colonial rule in North Africa, and emigrated to Israel in 1976.
