‘’There is a big difference between the ostentation of wearing a hijab and a kippah. The kippah is much more similar to wearing a cross. Marine Le Pen will never ask her citizens to stop wearing it,’’ says Colette Avital, a former Israeli diplomat and ex-Labor Member of the Knesset, about the French presidential hopeful’s vow to ban all religious symbols, including the kippah, from public spaces if she is elected president.

The leader of the extreme-right National Front party called on Jews to stop wearing the kippah as a way to fight radical Islam.

‘’I do not think this is the way to struggle against Muslim extremists. I don't understand how not wearing the kippah could help against terrorism. Prohibition on others is not a way to fight it,’’Avital, who is now head of Israel's umbrella organization of Holocaust survivors, told European Jewish Press (EJP).

She continued: "There is a very big problem, France defines itself as secular. It is agreed between all parties who do not want any confusion between state and religion. When in France women began to wear the hijab, the parliament decreed a law that forbid to wear it. But there is a big difference between wearing a hijab and a kippah. The kippah is much more similar to wearing a cross. Le Pen will never ask her citizens stop wearing it. She shouldn't put everything on one level.’’

She said ‘’not only Jews should be worried about the rise of populism and extreme right parties in Europe but also the rest of the population. ‘’We all know which are the consequences of such a phenomenon.’’

According to businessman and former MK Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, who lived forty years in France, should Le Pen be elected to the highest office, Jews will leave France.

He notes that the Le Pen family has been immersed in French politics for fifty years, and that Marine's father is nothing but a fascist who does not only not like Jews, but "hates Jews".

In contrast to her father, says Flatto-Sharon, the daughter maintains a policy of smiles and announces that she has nothing against Jews, but in reality conducts a policy that emanates from her father's worldview.

"This family is very dangerous. In another three months there will be an election, and if Ms. Le Pen takes control, it would be a catastrophe for Europe. France will leave Europe immediately. Only Israel would benefit because the Jews will emigrate. There are 600,000 Jews in France, and many of them are well-situated. If she wins I can guarantee that within a year, three-hundred-thousand of them will be here,’’ he says.

"This is anti-Semitism. She said that Jews can use a small kippah ... will she then tell us which kippah to wear? This is fascistic. I'm not afraid to say the words. They are our enemies just like the Arab terrorists. They are in the same category," Flatto-Sharon adds.

According to him, whoever he is in contact with in the Jewish community in France, says the same thing. "Everyone is afraid of Le Pen. If Le Pen takes power, France is finished. They will leave Europe with at least another ten countries and Europe is over, but what do we care? What interests us is the Jews. They need to know that it is dangerous to lay a hand on the Jews."