Israel’s ambassador to France is asking the country’s mayors to reject events in their cities as the French branch of the anti-Israel BDS movement launches “Israeli Apartheid week” on Tuesday under the slogan “100 years of occupation/ 100 years of popular resistance for justice,” referring to the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

“The 2017 edition of this annual meeting reveals the true face of the BDS movement: that of antisemitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Israel,” Aliza Bin-Noun wrote in an open letter to French mayors published on Friday. “By presenting the entire country as a ‘colony,’ the BDS tries to delegitimize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, contrary to other governments, like the French and the British, who recognized and approved Israel as such.”

Israel’s ambassador to France is asking the country’s mayors to reject events in their cities as the French branch of the anti-Israel BDS movement launches “Israeli Apartheid week” on Tuesday under the slogan “100 years of occupation/ 100 years of popular resistance for justice,” referring to the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

“The 2017 edition of this annual meeting reveals the true face of the BDS movement: that of antisemitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Israel,” Aliza Bin-Noun wrote in an open letter to French mayors published on Friday. “By presenting the entire country as a ‘colony,’ the BDS tries to delegitimize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, contrary to other governments, like the French and the British, who recognized and approved Israel as such.”