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French President Jacques Chirac addresses the media at the Elysee Palace on Monday after a meeting with Israeli ambassador to France Elie Barnavi. (AP)
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| By Ellis Shuman April 9, 2002 |
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A recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France, fueled by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was seen by Jewish leaders as reminiscent of the Nazi era. The French daily Le Figaro recently voiced concern over tensions between France's Jewish community, Europe's largest, and the country's Muslims, suggesting that France could become "an annex of the battleground in the Middle East."
Elie Barnavi, Israel's Ambassador to France, said young Arabs were behind the wave of anti-Jewish attacks, which were directly related to the worsening Middle East violence. Some Jewish leaders in France say the number of attacks shot up after the start of the Intifada, but incidents have recently intensified to new levels.
"We are a peaceful community," said Zvi Amar, a Jewish
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I don't believe that the French people are becoming anti-Semitic"
- French President Jacques Chirac
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leader in Marseille, after an arson attack there on March 31 destroyed the Or Aviv synagogue. "We don't understand why they are attacking us."
"It's an indisputable fact that there have been anti-Semitic acts," admitted President Jacques Chirac, speaking recently to Frequence Juive, a Jewish radio station. "But I don't believe that the French people are becoming anti-Semitic."
"Any manifestation of anti-Semitism, no matter its pretext, will be extremely and firmly pursued and sanctioned," declared Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who is in the midst of a presidential campaign against Chirac.
Jewish leaders claim the French government is overtly pro-Palestinian, but the government responds that its policies are even-handed, despite the fact that Islam is the country's second largest religion. Earlier this year, French intellectuals debated whether the attacks against Jewish targets were anti-Semitic, or were really common criminal acts.
"The French government is very good at speaking out against right-wing extremism. But it has laryngitis when it comes to anti-Semitism," Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told Reuters last week.
Recent attacks in France have included:
Arson attack at a synagogue in Strasbourg
Intentional car crash and fire bombing at synagogue in Lyon
Torching of a kosher butcher shop near Toulouse
Attack on a Jewish couple in Villeurbanne
Attack on a Jewish cemetery outside Schiltigheim
Clash between pro-Israeli activists and Palestinian supporters at a Paris airport
In response to the airport clash, Jospin said, "Showing solidarity over the Middle East conflict is one thing. But it's totally unacceptable that this leads to conflict between communities, that some blame Jews for what is happening there, and others Arab circles."
Recent demonstrations in France against anti-Semitic attacks also exposed fissures in the French Jewish community, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. Some members of the community stayed away from Paris marches "because they did not want to be associated with anything that felt like a pro-Sharon rally," said one student.
"How can we protest the violence committed against the Jews of France without appearing to be a toy soldier following [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's steps?" asked an editorial in the French daily Liberation.
In January, Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior said France was "the worst western country for anti-Semitism" and Sharon made similar comments. But on a visit to France at the end of February, Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres said that he was "certain that France is not anti-Semitic, neither historically nor currently."
Anti-Semitic attacks have spread to other European countries as well. Gasoline bombs were thrown through the windows of a Brussels synagogue on March 31. Two Molotov cocktails were thrown at an Antwerp synagogue on April 3. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said, "Under no circumstances can the situation in the Middle East be used as a pretext to perpetrate such acts of violence and of intolerance against a community that has always been integrated in our country."
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