Speaking near the former site of the Velodrome d'Hiver, the indoor cycle track from which the Jews were deported in 1942, Macron said: "It is indeed France that organised" the roundup. "Not a single German" took part. 

Netanyahu's presence at the ceremony sparked controversy, with the Union of French Jews for Peace (UJFP) calling the invitation "shocking" and "unacceptable".

The UJFP accused the Israeli government of "usurping the memory of the victims of Nazism to make people believe that Israel represents all the world's Jews". 

 The ceremony marked the day when officials of the Vichy regime in Nazi-occupied France began rounding up 13,152 Jews and taking them to the Velodrome d'Hiver, an indoor cycle track in Paris. Fewer than 100 of those who were detained at the so-called Vel d'Hiv and then sent to the Nazi death camps survived.