Daniel Bernard

Daniel Bernard ( September 13, 1941 in Lyon - April 29, 2004 in Paris ) was a French diplomat who served as ambassador to the United Kingdom and Algeria .

Daniel Bernard was born in Lyon and went to school there in the Lyceé du Parc. At the age of 12 he came to Great Britain and attended grammar school in Birmingham for over six months. He later studied English at the University of Lyon. He got his first diplomatic position at the embassy in Dublin .

In a time of tense Anglo-French relations Bernard excited as French ambassador in London by attention that he party dinner at Lord Black and his wife Barbara Amiel against Israel as a "shitty little country" called.

controversy

In December 2001, Barbara Amiel reported in an article in the Daily Telegraph on overt anti-Semitism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, describing how "the ambassador of a large EU state politely informed the guests of my house that the problems in the world are all present only because of this 'shitty little country Israel' ". "Why," he asked, "should the world be threatened with the threat of a Third World War because of these people?"

Within a short time, voices were heard calling for his resignation. Bernard himself initially reacted angrily to what he believed to be a scandalous breach of trust at a private party and claimed that he could not remember the exact wording of his statements. He later said that his remarks were distorted. Although he explicitly refused an apology, he vehemently denied being anti-Semitic or against Israel.

However, the damage had already been done when the French embassy tried to attribute the remarks to Daniel Bernard's inadequate knowledge of English and announced that he was extremely upset about the allegation of anti-Semitism.

Bernard, who was a close confidante of the then French President Jacques Chirac , did not resign, but changed to the post of French ambassador to Algeria in September 2002, according to a spokesman at his express request.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Daniel Bernard (obituary) , The Daily Telegraph . May 3, 2004. Retrieved February 25, 2018. 
2. ^ Daily Telegraph, December 17, 2001
3. ^ 'Anti-Semitic' French envoy under fire , BBC, December 20, 2001.
4. ↑ French ambassador refuses to apologize ( Memento of the original dated February 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Jane Merrick, Irish Examiner , December 20, 2001.