Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, has condemned anti-Zionism as a new form of antisemitism, in what has been described as an unprecedented statement in support of Israel.

Mr Macron, who was elected in May, said today: “We will never surrender to the messages of hate. We will not surrender to anti-Zionism because it is a re-invention of antisemitism.”

Macron was speaking at an event in Paris marking the mass deportation of French Jews during the Second World War. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, was also in attendance.

Mr Macron, like several of his predecessors, accepted France’s responsibility in the Vel d’Hiv operation, which saw more than 13,000 French Jews arrested in July 1942. He said the Vichy Government organised the round-up.

The President added: “Time does its work. Archives open and the truth comes out. It’s stark, irrevocable. It imposes itself on us all.”

Fewer than 100 of those who were detained – and then sent to death camps – survived.

Mr Netanyahu praised French citizens who protected Jews during the war, vowing to never let the Holocaust be repeated.

The commemoration was also attended by French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, several organisations representing French Holocaust survivors and Francis Kalifat, the head of French-Jewish group CRIF.