Posted on 06/15/2003 6:53:55 PM PDT by SJackson
Nathalie Soussan loves her native France but thinks she may have to build a life elsewhere. At 21 she is an intern for the French House at Columbia University, and says she is afraid to return to France because of the pervasive acceptance of anti-Semitism and violence against Jews in her country. Soussan is Jewish.
There are roughly 5 million Muslims and 650,000 Jews in France, the largest number for both communities in Europe. Most of the attacks on Jews occur in Paris suburbs and other neighborhoods where Jews and Muslims live in close proximity.
“Since the Jewish and Muslim communities are the largest, it is not surprising that misinformation and lack of education can lead to anti-Semitic hate crimes in France,” says Laila Al-Qatami, spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League.
The outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000 sparked a wave of Middle East-related anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, with the largest number occurring in France: 1,300 recorded since 2001, the highest level since World War II, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
At the same time there has been an increase in the number of Jews leaving France to live in Israel. According to Israeli government figures, 2,556 French Jews immigrated to Israel last year, double the number of a year earlier and the most since the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War. Though the Jewish Agency in Paris said these figures were “more about protecting Israel than fleeing France,” a recent poll published by JTA Global News Service indicated that more than a quarter of French Jews are considering leaving in the wake of the attacks against the country’s Jewish community.
As the number of incidents increased, some French Jews stopped turning to the police. Many accused the authorities of downplaying anti-Semitism. Making matters worse, there are areas of France (including suburbs of Paris and Marseilles) that police are simply afraid to enter for fear of being out-gunned by roving gangs. As a result, French Jews began logging complaints with the SOS Truth and Security Organization, a grass roots group established in Paris by a former police commissioner. Data on the incidents is compiled, analyzed, and published by the Wiesenthal Center.
“Though a lot of Jews in France feel very French, they also feel abandoned by their government because the officials have not acted strongly enough to stop the violence,” says Nathalie Soussan, who will return home to Paris this month.
In a recent interview, Emmanuel Gagniarre of the French Embassy in Washington, said: “The French government is doing what it can. There have been anti- Semitic incidents in the past, and unfortunately there will likely be more again....But for anyone to imagine that France could be anti-Semitic is propaganda.’’
Gary Ratner, executive director of the American Jewish Congress West Coast Region, agrees that the French government is cracking down, but he says he believes the recent upsurge of incidents are a result of Jacques Chirac’s anti-Israel and anti-American attitudes.
“When he was the Mayor of Paris in the 70’s and 80’s Chirac was a real friend to the Jewish community and spent a lot of money and effort to help Jewish institutions, and Jews thrived in Paris, which in some regards is still the case,” Ratner says. He believes Chirac really likes Jews as individuals but is anti-Israel for a variety of reasons, principally because of the donations he received from Saudi Arabia and Lebanon during his presidential campaign.
Early last month, Agence France-Presse reported that Chirac called for the “utmost vigilance and firmness” in the face of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic acts, noting he was worried that the war in Iraq would spark further tensions between the Jewish and Muslim communities in France.
Around the time of Chirac’s statement, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy publicly briefed police officials on the new “double zero tolerance” security legislation against racism and anti-Semitism just passed by the government. As part of this new regulation, demonstrators will not be allowed to carry flags with swastikas and other anti-Semitic, non-neutral symbols. The French police also recently announced the formation of a new unit to investigate racist and anti-Semitic crimes, and stepped up police protection at synagogues and Jewish schools.
Ratner says that this was not the first time officials acted. Last summer he himself met with members of the French government to discuss concerns over the country’s rising tide of anti-Semitism. He praises the work of Sarkozy and says that during these meetings, Sarkozy not only made commitments to crack down on anti-Semitic acts but also followed through on his promises.
“There was a beefed-up police presence at Jewish institutions,’’ says Ratner, noting that the frequency of anti-Semitic incidents decreased at the time.
But Soussan says Sarkozy and government officials are not really tackling the problem: “They are not taking preventative measures at all, but rather wait for something to happen first and then act.”
Past and Present
France has had both a positive and a negative relationship with its Jews, according to David A. Bell, professor of history at John Hopkins University. In its negative aspect, French public figures from across class and party lines continually resorted to the worst kind of anti-Semitic stereotypes.
Bell recaps the Dreyfus affair, in which a falsely accused Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was publicly stripped of his rank in the courtyard of the Ecole Militaire in 1894, as crowds yelled “Death to the Jews!” Then came the unconscionable actions of the Vichy French police, who acting independently of the Nazis, rounded up Jews and forced thousands of them on trains to Auschwitz to meet Hitler’s executioners. (A quarter of the French Jewish population perished in the Holocaust.)
He also recalls the violent attacks on Jewish cemeteries, restaurants and synagogues in the 1970’s and 80’s, and the more recent public statement of Jean-Marie Le Pen, head of the right-wing, National Front party, calling the gas chambers a mere “detail” in the history of World War II.
On the positive side, Bell reminds us that France has been home to successful Jews like Emile Durkheim, Camille Pissarro, Leon Blum, Marc Bloch, Pierre Mendes-France, Claude Levi-Strauss, and many others. He also points out that France was the first country in Europe to grant Jews full civil rights – not only in France but in all of the territories conquered by Napoleon.
“Indeed, the Jews of nineteenth-century France enjoyed such a high level of success and acceptance, including access to elite universities and high government offices, that they set about re-fashioning the Jews of other countries in their own image, in a Jewish version of France’s mission civilisatrice,” says Bell.
However, notes the widely-quoted academic and author Daniel Pipes, “France never purged itself of anti-Semitism, just hid it.” In its present form, says Pipes, Muslim anti-Semitism is more likely to erupt in violence than Christian anti-Semitism.
Contributing Factors
Social and economic factors may be at least partly to blame for Muslim anti-Semitism in France. “Most of the time, the incidents are the deeds of young people of Arab and North African descent who live in the rougher neighborhoods, with the backdrop and international environment that are not very conducive to peaceful relations,” says Gagniarre.
Many of the Muslim families originally from North Africa live in grim, drug-infested high-rise suburbs on the outskirts of French cities. Their community lacks cohesion and is split by ethnicity, history, religiosity, politics and class.
Some experts blame the violence against Jews on the growth of radical Islamic movements, noting that impoverished Muslims feel they have become the victims of institutionalized racism and see the Jewish community as more affluent and better integrated than they are.
Dr. Gilles Kepel, a Muslim and the director of the French Centre for Sociological Research, suggested in an interview with the Arab magazine Ain-Al-Yaqeen that a majority of these radical movements are the result of an alliance between poor urban Muslim youth, the Muslims of the petite bourgeoisie (who feel marginalized and excluded from political privileges), and those he calls the “bearded engineers,” or graduates of state universities, who distort the broad tenets of Islam to serve their political needs.
Other French Muslims, like the deputy mayor of Sannois in Val d’Oise, Rachid Kaci, encourage the cultivation of an Islam that is cut off from extremist influences and are outspoken against anti-Semitism.
These radical movements are encouraged by various cooperating associations, Kaci says. Fundamentalist proselytizers diligently work the housing projects and the prisons in France for new converts. With monies obtained from Saudi Arabian subsidies, and donations from a sincerely pious community, the Union of French Islamic Organization (UOIF) appeals to the unemployed North African Muslims in the ghettos, providing an alternative social- service network that is often better than anything else available.
Laila Al-Qatami, the spokesperson for the American-Arab anti-Discrimination League cited earlier, agrees that North African immigrants in France are responsible for a number of the attacks on Jews, though she says it’s important to acknowledge that anti-Semitic attacks have also been committed by right-wing extremists who attack Muslims as well. A number of these groups from the far right identify themselves as members of Le Pen’s National Front.
But some observers, including Weekly Standard senior editor Christopher Caldwell, say there is also a “new anti-Semitism” on the Left that has practically nothing to do with Le Pen. “In fact, its most dangerous practitioners,” according to Caldwell, “are to be found among the very crowds thronging the streets to protest him.”
Dr. Charles Jacobs, president of the David Project in Boston, adds that the European Left’s adoption of “Palestinianism” as its banner exacerbates hatred of Jews.
“Many Europeans like to portray the Israelis as Nazis, as it functions as a salve for their own Holocaust consciences,” Jacobs says. As a result, the Jews of Europe are caught in what Jacobs calls a “pincer” between Europe’s radical Muslims and the Left.
“This same pincer is forming on American college campuses, and Jewish defense organizations are only now beginning to appreciate the full seriousness of the situation,” Jacobs says.
Worldwide Phenomenon
Statistics indicate that the U.S. has experienced its own increase in reported anti-Semitism. “There were 1559 anti-Semitic cases reported in the U.S. last year, which is up eight percent from the year before,” says Aaron Brietbart, senior researcher at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Many of the events grew out of anti-Israel demonstrations on campuses.”
The Anti-Defamation League also reports an increase in pro-Palestinian rallies across the U.S., which the organization says go far beyond legitimate criticism of Israel to promote anti-Semitic hatred and anti-Israel sentiment.
Daniel Pipes warns that France offers a preview of what things could look like in the U.S. if there were a substantial increase in the Muslim population here, or if a population outside of the political mainstream were to gain political power.
Pipes contends that while some are public and others discreet, every militant Islamic organization throughout the globe preaches anti-Semitism and nearly all refer to a battle to the death with Jews. The assassination of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, filmed by Islamist executioners who forced him to look into the camera and confess his Jewish origin before they beheaded him, is one of many examples.
“This way of thinking has damaged the Islamic religion over the years more than it has served it,” admits Kepel of the French Centre for Sociological Research. He predicts a decline in extremism will give way to a generation of Muslims who will free themselves from Islamic movements, and will open up a new era for Islamic society, which he calls “the era of Muslim democracy.”
Focus: Israel
Ihsan Alkhatib, an immigration attorney and doctoral student of international relations in Dearborn, Michigan, says the issue of Israel has created tension between Arab Muslims and Jews almost everywhere.
“Jewish support for Israel is due to tribal solidarity, regardless of the merits of the case,” he maintained in a recent interview. “The animosity displayed against Jews by the French Arabs or Muslims is also due to tribal solidarity or assabiyeh.”
But Project David’s Charles Jacobs says that understanding the merits of the case is key to understanding the problem. He believes the conflict in Israel is seen by much of the Muslim world as a religious conflict between Islam and the Jews. Jacobs speaks of a campaign in the Islamic world, funded in part by the Saudis, in which anti-Semitic material is distributed through a global network of madrassas and mosques.
“In Europe, the Jewish population has been dwarfed by Muslim immigrants, many of whom blame the Jews for the suffering of the Palestinians,” Jacobs says. “Jews and Jewish institutions have been attacked by Muslims in France, Belgium, Italy and other countries because of this.”
Al-Qatami notes that there have been hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs as well as against Jews in France, particularly following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. She is hopeful that recent actions by the French government, including the formation of a Muslim National Council, will “serve to prevent future hate crimes for all the citizens of France.” But Jacobs says the Jews of France will have to drop their illusions and deal with reality as it is.
“French Jews,” he explains, “are targeted simultaneously by three global ideologies that use ‘Palestinianism’ to express deeply held beliefs and feelings: by Islamic radicalism which sees Jews as non-Muslim usurpers of the Islamic holy land; by leftists whose anti-Zionism articulates an animus toward the West, America, capitalism and globalization; and by resurgent European anti-Semites whose Jew-hatred now comes wrapped in anti-Zionism.”
The Jews of France, he adds, “will need to organize and demonstrate in the streets for the French to live up to their humanitarian ideals. They need to point out French hypocrisy....and they will have to throw every resource into doing what only their best students have done, which is to make Israel’s case, pierce through the walls of lies and deception, and teach themselves and their children how to do it.”
Maria Sliwa, a graduate student of journalism at New York University, often lectures at synagogues on modern-day slavery and is the founder of Freedom Now, a global human rights news service. She is the sister of WABC talk-show host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. She can be contacted at mes285@nyu.edu.
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It's the Muslim immigrants this time, just as it was the German "immigrants" last time. The French, their hands are clean.
Just as true today as it was back then. No wonder the Pat Buchanans and Jean-Marie Le Pens are lately indistinguishable from the international labor unions and A.N.S.W.E.R. War is a great clarifier.
a lot of Jews in France feel very French, they also feel abandoned by their government
France has had both a positive and a negative relationship with its Jews..
"France never purged itself of anti-Semitism, just hid it.”
...there is also a “new anti-Semitism” on the Left that has practically nothing to do with Le Pen. “In fact, its most dangerous practitioners,” according to Caldwell, “are to be found among the very crowds thronging the streets to protest him.”
Dr. Charles Jacobs, president of the David Project in Boston, adds that the European Left’s adoption of “Palestinianism” as its banner exacerbates hatred of Jews.
...every militant Islamic organization throughout the globe preaches anti-Semitism and nearly all refer to a battle to the death with Jews...
....animosity displayed against Jews by the French Arabs or Muslims is also due to tribal solidarity..
In Europe, the Jewish population has been dwarfed by Muslim immigrants, many of whom blame the Jews for the suffering of the Palestinians,”
They need to point out French hypocrisy
Only second to France in denial of the impact of unrestrained immigration is the United States in the SouthWest where we will be facing "seperatist" terrorist movements in the next 20 years.
Why is this not a hate crime? Why are Muslims allowed to use their mosques to distribute hate literature? Would any other religion in America be allowed to do this?
Not quite. The rules are: if someone screws you over, you may hate them and most folks will understand. (The French screwed us over on Iraq, big time.) But if you hate someone who hasn't done squat to you, it may be that you're a trashy bit of slime. (The French hate the Jews, who haven't done squat to them.) Thus, the rules permit us to hate the French on two different levels: One, they screwed us over and Two, they're a trashy bit of slime.
Fill me in here guys. From what I remember Le Pen was labled "right-wing " for wanting to curb immigration, like any political person who speaks out against an influx of Arabs in Europe. I never read anything to make me believe he was anti-semetic.
Fortuyn was labled a right-winged extremist, (even though he was gay, ...not exactly a conservative stronghold)) He really nailed the problem with open Muslim immigration. He stated that the problem was fatherless Muslim families where mothers are not allowed to disipline their sons (Muslim laws), thus leading to marading raping, anti-semetic street gangs.
Socialism is not France's only major problem. If they don't wise up, sooner or later we are all in for a hell of a ride.
Not really. I hold the French culture which is spawning the Jew-hatred you acknowledge (the French can hate no one) for the second time in half a cenury in contempt, while acknowledgeing there are probably many Frenchmen who despair at the conditions in their nation. That's not hatred
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