France
and its Jews:
Solving the conundrum
by: Maria Sliwa
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 in NY
City, 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 about 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 French, Jewish and Muslim communities are both the
largest, it is not surprising that misinformation and lack of education
can lead to anti-Semitic hate crimes in France," Laila
Al-Qatami, spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
League, said in a recent e-mail. "As documented by the recent
national report on hate crimes in France, these quadrupled in 2002, with
over half the attacks aimed at Jews."
The outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada on September 28, 2000 sparked a
wave of Middle East related anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, with the
largest number of European anti-Semitic attacks occurring in France:
1,300 recorded since 2001, the highest level since World War II,
according to the 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. This is
double the number a year earlier and the most since 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 the JTA Global News Service said that more than a
quarter of the Jews in France are considering leaving in the wake of the
serious attacks targeting the country's Jewish community.
As incidents increased, many French Jews gave up calling the police and
claim authorities are downplaying anti-Semitism. Instead, they are
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 Soussan, who will
return home to Paris in June.
"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," Emmanuel Gagniarre, of the French Embassy in DC
said in a recent interview. "Most of the time these incidents
are the deeds of young people of Arab and North African descent, who
live in the rougher neighborhoods, in the suburbs of big cities, with
the backdrop and international environment that is not very conducive to
peaceful relations."
Early last month, Agence France-Presse reported that Jacques 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 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.
This was not the first time officials acted according to Gary Ratner,
executive director of the American Jewish Congress West Coast Region.
Ratner met with members of the French government last summer 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," Ratner said during an interview. He also noted
a decrease in the number of incidents.
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."
Anti-Semitism is not new to France. "France never purged
itself of anti-Semitism, just hid it," said Daniel Pipes in a
recent e-mail. Pipes, an expert on militant Islam, was recently
nominated by President Bush to serve on the board of the US Institute of
Peace.
"It is important to remember that Muslim anti-Semitism is different
from Christian anti-Semitism and is relatively new for France in modern
times," said Toni Kamins, author of The Complete Jewish Guide to
France, in a recent e-mail. Both Pipes and Kamins say that of the
two, Muslim anti-Semitism is more likely to erupt in violence.
Social and economic factors may be to blame. Today, many of the
Muslim families from North Africa live in grim, drug-infested high-rise
suburbs on the outskirts of French cities. Their community lacks
cohesion and is split within itself by ethnicity, history, religiosity,
politics and class. Kamins says Muslims are regarded with fear,
suspicion, and hatred by many French; and while Jews were eventually
accepted into French society, Muslims are not. "Unemployment
among Muslim immigrants is high, education is an afterthought, access to
mainstream French society is nearly impossible, and being arrested for
suspicion of this or that is common," Kamins says.
Experts note that these 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.
Some Muslim experts blame the violence on the growth of radical Islamic
movements. Dr. Gilles Kepel, a Muslim and director at the French
Centre for Sociological Research, explained during an interview with an
Arab weekly 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 deputy mayor of Sannois in Val d'Oise, Rachid
Kaci, encourage the cultivation of an Islam that is cut off from the
foreign influences of extremism, 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 openhearted and 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 the French one.
At the same time, the U.S. has also experienced an 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.
Many of the events grew out of anti-Israel demonstrations on
campuses," Aaron Brietbart, senior researcher at the Simon
Wiesenthal Center said in an interview. The Anti-Defamation League
also reports an increase in pro-Palestinian rallies across the country,
which the ADL says go far beyond legitimate criticism of Israel to
promote anti-Semitic hatred and anti-Israel sentiment.
Extremism may be a factor of increasing anti-Semitism worldwide.
According to Pipes, every militant Islamic organization across the globe
preaches anti-Semitism, many in public, some more discreetly: Nearly all
refer to a battle to the death with Jews. The assassination of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, for example, was
filmed by Islamist executioners who forced him to look into the camera
and confess his Jewish origin before they beheaded him.
"This way of thinking has damaged the Islamic religion over the
years more than it has served it," Kepel says. 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."
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," Alkhatib said in a recent interview.
"The animosity displayed against Jews by the French Arabs or
Muslims is also due to tribal solidarity or 'Assabiyeh.'"
Al-Qatami notes that there have been hate crimes against Muslims and
Arabs as well in France, following the September 11, 2001 attacks. She
is hopeful that the 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."
In the wake of the violence, Kamins encourages Jews not to remain
silent. "France is the third largest Jewish community in the
world," she says. "It is important that the Jewish
community of France assert their rights for protection. Pressure
from other governments should also be exercised."
Maria Sliwa is a graduate student of journalism at New York
University.