French anti-Semitism reports surge; drop in right-wing racism

BBC World Service ^ | March 28, 2003

[nwrep]

French anti-Semitism reports surge

Attacks on synagogues have increased since 11 September 2001

There was a dramatic rise in reported racist and anti-Semitic acts in France last year, according to the French Government's human rights watchdog.

The National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) said there had been more than 300 registered instances of violence, and almost 1,000 cases of abuse or threats.

Two-thirds of them were anti-Semitic - six times as many as in 2001.

If the increase in the number of attacks aimed at the immigrant community is significant, the quantity of attacks aimed at the Jewish commmunity has truly exploded

CNCDH report

The CNCDH said the incidents, often blamed on young men of Arab descent, were largely connected with the escalation in the Middle East conflict.

The attacks on America of 11 September 2001 are also thought to have fuelled tensions.

The report also confirmed a tendency in recent years towards a drop in racism linked to traditional far-right groups.

Iraq factor

Correspondents say many in the French Jewish community have been shocked by attacks against rabbis, synagogues and Jewish schools.

RACIST ACTS

Acts of violence (total) - 313

Acts of violence (anti-Semitic) - 193

---

Threats, graffiti, insults (total) - 992

Threats, graffiti, insults (anti-Semitic) - 731

"If the increase in the number of attacks aimed at the immigrant community is significant, the quantity of attacks aimed at the Jewish commmunity has truly exploded," the report said.

And there are concerns that tensions between France's half a million Jews and five million Muslims could now rise further as a result of the war in Iraq.

On Saturday, four Jews participating in an anti-war demonstration in Paris were attacked with metal bars.

Tensions reduced

Last month Education Minister Luc Ferry announced new measures to deal with anti-Semitism in French schools.

Muslims fear being singled out as an enemy

Schoolteachers have reported problems teaching subjects such as the Holocaust, the war in Algeria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to classes with large Arab representation.

However, the French Government's position of opposing the US-led war on Iraq appears to have helped to calm the situation.

"The Jewish community is worried about being made a scapegoat while Muslims fear being singled out as the enemy," Malek Boutih, president of SOS Racism, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

"But France's position on the international front has encouraged republican integration. A national community is forged through trials such as this."

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[tomahawk]

France is becoming an Islamic state. One with nukes.

This will need to be taken care of later.

[stands2reason]

bttt

[alloysteel]

Not all the "anti-Semitic" attacks on the Jewish synagogues are done by so-called "right-wingers". Perhaps the vast majority of them are from persons or groups that have a personal axe to grind concerning real or perceived slights they have gotten in the past from "those damned Jews". Has nothing to do with political coloration, just an unreasoning prejudice. After all, Jews in the Soviet Union suffered even more fearsomely from pogroms and persecutions, than even in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Czarist regime was, by all odds, much more tolerant of Jews than Stalin ever was, despite all the horror stories of Cossacks ransacking Jewish shtetls in the 19th and early part of the 20th Century. Marching the kulaks into collective farms was a very bloody enterprise, but few survivors were left to tell the tale.

History has been rewritten extensively, but the collective grief that the Jewish people have endured has by no means been exclusively the province of those who are termed "right-wing".

[TopQuark]

Muslims fear being singled out as an enemy

Oh, they are the vioctims. With 10-11 Muslims to every Jew that lives in France, with most of the violence against Jews committed by French Muslims, and with zero acts of violence perpetrated by French Jews against the Muslim compatriots --- it is the Muslims that are a victim!

Reality does not matter. Soon National Geographic will be making documentaries about antiolopes hunting down the lions and eating them. Wait for the teach-ins in Ivy leage schools about the "perilous state of lions that are in need of out solidarity to prevent them from the slaughter by antilopes."

[sofaman]

French anti-Semitism reports surge

Impossible! Chirac says that France is not an anti-Semitic country.

Of course, he didn't specify which Semites he was talking about.Evidently, the Arab Semites are tolerated, it's the Jewish ones that they can't tolerate.

[Nachum]

I have a French Jewish friend who ran away from France in 1994. He is comparing today's France to Germany of 1938.

[Nachum]

Correction- actually he said of 1934. 4 years before the events of 1938.

[Michael2001]

If Muslims fear being singled out as the enemy all the time, then why do they keep attacking Jews?

[gcruse]

French anti-Semitism reports surge; drop in right-wing racism

Odd, that.  Anti-semitism is a form of racism, I would think.
And since it usually comes from the right wing, I would imagine
it is a wash.  That is the drop in right-wing racism is because
it is being reclassified as anti-Semitism, driving those numbers up.
But, that's just speculation.

[dennisw]

Not all the "anti-Semitic" attacks on the Jewish synagogues are done by so-called "right-wingers".

My educated guess, few are. It's the MusloManiacs. They read the Koran and do as Muhammad did. Once you get enough of them they start with their nasty, in yo face, aggressive attitude.

[mewzilla]

We all know left-wingers are never racist.

[xm177e2]

A news report about anti-Semitism in France... and what does the choose BBC show as a photo accompanying the article? "Muslims fear being singled out as an enemy"

No, you F^!#-tards, JEWS are being singled out as the enemy. BBC = Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation