In April last year the 87-year-old, who founded the party in 1972, was fined 30,000 euros ($32,000) by a French court for Holocaust denial. Le Pen told French television that the gas chambers used to kill Jews in the Holocaust were "a detail of the war."
However, his daughter Marine and other party officials have worked hard to shed the party's anti-Semitic image and attract Jewish voters who share the party's Euroscepticism and concerns about immigration.
Last week Nicolas Bay, Secretary-General of the National Front and Member of the European Parliament, visited Israel in a private capacity.
Although the Israeli government officially boycotts the National Front, Bay met with senior figures of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, an army colonel and deputy head of the Health Ministry.
He also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
Échanges avec David Shayan, Président des jeunes du @Likud_Party. pic.twitter.com/HHkC2TRTX0
— Nicolas Bay (@nicolasbayfn) 26 января 2017 г.
'A meeting with David Shayan, President of the Young Likud party,' Bay tweeted.
In an interview with Sputnik Francais, Bay said the visit was a chance to "dispel misunderstandings" about his party.
"I think that there are a lot of politicians, managers, associations and businesspeople in Israel wondering what the National Front is. I came to Israel to meet with some of them and talk about our political views, about what we think about the situation in Israel, but most importantly about the position we are defending in France ahead of elections in 2017. This trip is an opportunity to dispel some of the misunderstandings. Some might think that National Front can be suspected of anti-Semitism – this was an opportunity to clarify this issue," Bay said.
The party's Secretary-General rejected accusations of anti-Semitism, and said the party is in fact protective of the Jewish community in France.
"We are saying that today there are a certain number of anti-Semites in France, strictly speaking Islamist groups operating in our country, whose victims are our fellow Jewish citizens. These issues need to be dealt with. We are not only involved in civic defense, but we are also a shield protecting all the French, and in particular French people of Jewish faith."
Michel Thooris, President of the French Union of Jewish Patriots (Union des Patriotes Français juifs), told Sputnik that Bay's trip is a step in the right direction, but the relationship between Israel and the National Front will really improve if the latter adopts a similar policy to Donald Trump.
Trump has pledged to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that would be welcomed by the Israeli government but dismay Palestinians.
"I think that now the National Front's Middle East policy should comply with the policy proposed by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. You can't expect the relationship between Israel and the National Front to improve if the latter continues to oppose the policies of the Netanyahu government and Donald Trump's intention to open the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Recognition of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people is absolutely necessary to finally normalize relations between the National Front, the Israeli government and the Jewish community," Thooris said.
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