When the presentations began here in Paris during the 32nd annual dinner of the French-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, CCFI, it was quite clear that, especially in wartime, we cannot take politics out of business, nor business out of politics, certainly not. In the Middle East.
“The ceasefire with Hezbollah is important to remove the threat of terrorism, and not just on paper,” CCFI president Henri Cukierman told about 300 guests at the prestigious Pré Catalan dining complex, nestled among the trees in the Bois de Boulogne park. “And now in Gaza, Hamas figures say they want to negotiate, while Iran has been weakened and is afraid of Trump, although it is difficult to say what he will do. All this means that the dynamics of trade exchanges with Israel seem clear.” higher.”
Cukierman had strong words for some major French companies, saying: “I have faced severe criticism from pro-Palestinian groups here because of their activity in and with Israel, and in some cases I have surrendered to their demands.” He pointed to the giant supermarket company Carrefour, which withdrew its products from stores in West Bank settlements.
(At the same time, in response to calls in neighboring Jordan to boycott Carrefour over its presence in Israel, the French retail giant announced in early November that it would close its stores in the Hashemite Kingdom. Globes, November 4.)
There are the endless attacks by the populist leader of the powerful Left Front party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and by elected parliamentarians, who went so far as to wave Palestinian flags during National Assembly sessions.
“The best way to confront all this criticism is, more than ever, to strengthen economic relations between France and Israel, and to continue offering French companies a closer look at innovative Israeli products,” he told the guests.
Four French companies then received awards for developing trade with Israel: Altavia, the world leader in retail marketing services, which opened a branch in Tel Aviv in June this year; The law firm GKA (Grinal, Klugman, Aumont), which, with the assistance of CCFI, represented several Israeli companies, including Israel Shipyards, in the legal action taken by Sogena, the organizer of the EuroNaval Business Salon, to ban Israeli companies; Michel Raymond & Associates, the architecture firm that designed and built the magnificent building on the campus of Tel Aviv University; and Siena Venture Capital Company.
Guest speaker and active supporter of Israel, Maurice Levy, made an emotional plea. “The Western world expressed its sympathy for Israel on October 7 and 8, but the turnaround was amazing,” the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the global advertising giant Publicis, and the founder of Europe’s largest high-tech salon, Vivatech, told the audience: “The Western world expressed its sympathy for Israel on October 7 and 8, but the turnaround was amazing. I want to express my gratitude to companies.” French, which continues to support Israel in the face of protests against it and against it.”
Noting that the plight of the Israeli hostages did not seem to affect anyone, he continued: “I am not insensitive to the bombing and destruction in Gaza, but working with existing Israeli companies and startups contributes to Israel’s survival. And the French companies are double winners. You win on a level Investing, on the most intimate personal level, in your hearts, because you are doing something good.
Does the French word for righteous, “juste,” ring any bells? I didn’t ask anyone. “Les justes” were non-Jews in countries across Europe who hid and rescued Jews during World War II, and their bravery has since been recognized by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Thus about two-thirds of French Jews were saved from Nazi attack.
At my table, Valérie Zarka, a French resident in Tel Aviv, had a number of pointed observations about technology exchanges. She founded More Than Digital in 2015, bringing French companies to Israel to expose them to innovative technology for startups in a range of fields, from personnel management and retail sales, to safety and cyber protection.
“Sometimes they are surprised when they see innovation, but technology transfer is not always easy,” she told Globes. “Sometimes I bring startups together in accelerators, or we visit them one by one. In both cases, the startup world is opportunistic, while French companies are slow and heavy. They often don’t want to be the first to buy certain software or take innovation risks.”
It caught my attention, to say the least. She continued: “How many times have French companies been the first to see certain startups and their innovative technologies, and then it has been the American giants that have bought either the software or the startups themselves.”
Does she have examples? Oh yes!! There was Nutrino, a virtual startup specializing in personalized nutrition, which was first pitched to French retail giant Carrefour for Vivatech in 2017, then acquired by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Medtronic in November 2019, a $100 million exit. Then there was Datorama, in the marketing data analytics space, which first pitched to weather giant Meteo France in September 2015, and was purchased by Salesforce in July 2018 for $850 million. And there was the most famous of all, Mobileye, which French oil giant Total first saw in March 2016, and which Intel bought a year later for $15.3 billion, a record exit.
And now? “I want to make Israeli startups shine without thinking about politics or religion,” she told me, “but since the war in Gaza started, startups have suffered.” He added, “Many foreign companies, including French companies, face obstacles to visiting Israel.”
CCFI President Cukierman explained in detail. “The problem is related to companies’ insurance policies that refuse to cover visits to war zones,” he told me. “Small companies can do whatever they want, but for big companies it is too complicated. It is not a legal issue, it is a matter of red tape.”
Cukierman also noted that even before the war, France ranked 11th or 12th in trade with Israel, far behind Great Britain and Germany among European countries, while ranking fifth or sixth in overall world trade. He and I have been discussing this topic for years without identifying any reasons behind it.
Eight of the ten people sitting at my table, all French, believe that the recent arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant were due to anti-Semitism. Even Israeli opposition figures thought the same thing. I disagreed, but not wanting to let my personal politics interfere, I asked Henry Cukierman and Maurice Levy for their opinion.
They agreed with me. “The ICC’s arrest warrants are anti-Israel and fundamentally unjust, but they are not anti-Semitic,” Levy said, while Cockerman told me: “The arrest warrants are evidence of the ICC’s cowardice, but they are not based on anti-Semitism.”
And then news… With long-time organizer Dominique Borra, CCFI will hold its annual CYFI Forum on March 31, 2025, bringing Israeli startups to Paris. The focus has been expanded to include cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology breakthroughs. This is truly a “step further”.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on December 2, 2024.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.
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