President Emmanuel Macron has rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for accusing him of fuelling anti-Semitism, calling the comments an “offence to France as a whole”.

The French leader responded to his Israeli counterpart in a letter published on Tuesday in several newspapers, in which he said Netanyahu’s recent accusations aimed at Macron were “unacceptable” and warned that the battle against anti-Semitism “must not be weaponised”.

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“Accusations of inaction in the face of a scourge that we are fighting with everything in our power are unacceptable and are an offence to France as a whole,” Macron wrote in the letter.

“The fight against antisemitism must not be weaponised and will not fuel any discord between Israel and France.”

The French leader also appealed to Netanyahu to bring the “murderous and illegal permanent war” in Gaza to an end, saying it was “causing indignity for your country and placing your people in a deadlock”.

France and Israel have been embroiled in a diplomatic spat since last week, when Netanyahu accused Macron of fuelling “the anti-Semitic fire” in France by planning to recognise Palestinian statehood.

The accusation was contained in a letter which claimed that anti-Semitism had surged in France since Macron’s recent announcement that he would recognise Palestine as a state at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly next month.

The French president’s office responded by labelling the remarks “abject” and “erroneous”.

“This is a time for seriousness and responsibility, not for conflation and manipulation,” the French presidency said last week, adding that violence against the Jewish community was “intolerable” and asserting that France “protects and will always protect its Jewish citizens”.

The row has widened to draw in Israel’s chief ally, the United States, after Washington’s ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, published an open letter to Macron in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, echoing the allegation that France was failing to take sufficient action against anti-Semitism.

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Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law, was summoned to the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs over the accusations, which France said were “unacceptable”, but the US embassy’s charge d’affaires went in his place, as Kushner was absent.