France to curb anti-Jewish Arab TV b'casts

Reuters ^ | 01 Feb 2004 00:46:43 GMT | Tom Heneghan

[Nachum]

PARIS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - France will soon pass a law to curb anti-Semitic television broadcasts coming from the Middle East and fine satellite operators who distribute anti-Jewish programmes, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said on Saturday.

Raffarin told the annual dinner of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) that he and several cabinet ministers had seen some of these broadcasts and found them "unbearable to watch (and) revolting".

This followed an appeal by CRIF President Roger Cukierman to block anti-Semitic broadcasts from the Middle East, which officials here say encourage Muslim youths in France to attack Jews to take revenge for Israeli policy against the Palestinians.

"I believe deeply that our struggle against hate must take on a new dimension," Raffarin said as he announced the government would submit a bill to parliament to enable French judges to stop a satellite station that broadcasts anti-Semitic material.

He said the law would force satellite operators to inform Paris which stations they carried and threaten them with fines if they transmitted provocative broadcasts.

Satellite television is widely watched in the poor suburbs around French cities where most recent anti-Semitic attacks have occured.

Cukierman said: "We see that messages of anti-Jewish hate are invading the air waves. Day after day, they reach households in our cities and suburbs thanks to satellite dishes."

He said satellite television broadcasters had beamed into France Egyptian and Syrian programmes based on the 19th-century Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery purporting to show Jewish plots to dominate the world.

"The Al Manar station, which belongs to Hezbollah, broadcasts from Lebanon unbearable scenes ... one sees actors disguised as Jews who slit the throat of a non-Jewish child and collect in a saucer blood supposedly meant for their unleavened bread," he said.

Cukierman said France's 600,000 Jews were living "a period of malaise" and asked what their future would be.

"The anti-Jewish climate is spreading at schools and universities, across the whole country. Even small Jewish children have become victims."

He indirectly supported the government's plan to ban religious symbols from state schools, including the Jewish skullcap, to ensure that schools remained oases of neutrality where religious activists could not press their views on others.

He also urged the government to ban the Party of French Muslims, an openly anti-Zionist group whose leader Mohamed Latreche is now being investigated for a speech at a recent protest march that Jewish leaders denounced as anti-Semitic.

[dinok]

How nice of them...I wonder if the footage of the last bus bombing had an effect.

Supporters of the Arabs should hang their heads in shame.

[Malesherbes]

But multi-culturalism is their strength - or am I mistaken?

[xJones]

This followed an appeal by CRIF President Roger Cukierman to block anti-Semitic broadcasts from the Middle East, which officials here say encourage Muslim youths in France to attack Jews to take revenge for Israeli policy against the Palestinians.

It is touching to see that the French government can care about Muslim violence against Jews, even if it takes a threat of French Muslim violence that might involve non-Jewish French.

[dagnabbit]

Demographics are destiny. Islamic immigration is the West's suicide.

[Adrastus]

I quite agree. The people who support this should hang their heads in shame....while their feet dangle two feet off the ground.

[sarasmom]

Timing a bit suspect.IMHO.
If one actively does not trust the French government, one might assume they want to blunt the news starting to come out of the middle east about bribes and weapons involving the French.
It is not as if they suddenly discovered the vicious hatred of the Arabs for the Jews.

[Nagilum]

Despite all that has happened, I am still definitely inclined to give the french the nod over the muslims. Part of that is my belief that, as someone said, "demographics are destiny", the muslim population in France highly influenced their actions IMHO. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I'm still willing to give the French the benefit of the doubt to turn this ship around. The us has a VERY vested interest in seeing the France does not become a pseudo-islamic nation. That would be an absolute disaster for Europe and for the US.

[risk]

How about deporting muslims, and leaving the civil rights of the French intact. America, you're next. Make up your minds, too.

[mtg]

France will soon pass a law to curb anti-Semitic television broadcasts...

Shouldn't that read "France will soon pass a law to eliminate anti-semitic television broadcasts"

[chukcha]

These programs are available in the US. I believe both Dish Network and DirectTV carry WorldLink TV channel. Their program - "Mosaic: World News From The Middle East" - includes segments of Al-Manar.

http://www.worldlinktv.org/mosaic/moslebanon.php3

[ChicagoHebrew]

"We believe that Arab anti-Jewish propaganda is interfereing with anti-Jewish propaganda produced here at home. We don't want to send good French jobs in the Jew-hating industry abroad"

Seriously, if France is changing, I'm shocked, but happy.

[Righty1]

But, but.. it's just a shitty little country. Who cares if we help another genocide along? F&&%$ the GD frogs!

[risk]

I share your sarcasm. The decent French people who are left need encouragement, however. Remember, America is no longer the united and resolute force for freedom it used to be during WWII.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

The people who support this should hang their heads in shame....while their feet dangle two feet off the ground.

How, precisely, does one go about nominating another poster for "Quote of the Day" honors, please? Anybody...? :)

[optik_b]

Is France on the way to becoming an Islamic state?
By Barbara Amiel

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/01/26/do2601.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/01/26/ixopinion.html

[shhrubbery!]

I'm afraid it's too little too late.

France has been losing the demographic war for years now, and it won't be long before La Belle France becomes an Islamic state.

[sarasmom]

I must disagree on the importance of France to the USA.
I think France,for at least the last decade, has played a very dangerous game against the USA that they are about to lose.
If you follow the various reports on the emerging status of the EU, and watch the euro, you might decide to rethink whatever is your basis for thinking France is in any way allied with the USA.
China on the other hand, has much in common with them.
In my favorite quote from Dr. Condi Rice...Punish France,ignore Germany and forgive Rissia.

[Nagilum]

If France falls to an Islamic state, the world will not be a pretty place. We'll have to agree to disagree, but I defintely think it's in our interests to support France in any effort they undertake to quell the unflux of islamic extremism into their country.

[Atlantic Friend]

Yes, it should...if the shows were French-made. But,as the article points out, these shows originate from the Middle-East and and broadcast in Europe (and in the USA) via commercial telecommunication satellites that are not controlled by the French government. And neither are the show producers. So, for now the only option is to fine heavily the satellite operators.