france 2006
While the
French Jewish organization CRIF reported a total of 371 antisemitic incidents
in 2006, compared to 300 in 2005, the Ministry of the Interior recorded
541 events compared to 506 in 2005. The kidnapping and murder of Ilan Halimi,
in February, raised a huge national controversy over the extent of antisemitism
in France.
the jewish community
The French Jewish community, which numbered about 575,000 out
of a total population of 62.4 million in 2005, is the largest in Europe. The greatest concentration is in the Paris area (300-350,000), followed by
Marseille (80,000), Lyon (30,000), Nice and Toulouse (20,000 each). Strasbourg, where 12,000 Jews live, is a major religious and cultural center. In
comparison, the foreign population (i.e., holding foreign nationality) amounts
to about 4.3 million, while French citizens of foreign
origin (born in France, but having at least one parent who was not) number
19.7 million (official census figures). The Muslim population was estimated at
4 million, including 2 million holding French citizenship. (French legislation
forbids census questions relating to religious affiliation.)
The three main organizations of French
Jewry are the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France
(CRIF), the Consistoire Central and the Fonds Social Juif Unifié (FSJU).
There has been a dramatic revitalization of communal life since the early
1980s, reflected in the large number of Jewish private schools (about 100,
attended by 30 percent of Jewish schoolchildren, or some 30,000 pupils), as
well as synagogues (over 150 in the Paris area). Since the beginning of the
antisemitic wave which began in autumn 2000, many families have transferred
their children from state-run secular schools to private Jewish (mainly
Orthodox) schools. Further, immigration of French Jews to Israel has been rising: 3,000 left in 2005 compared to 2,400 in 2004 (figures for 2006 are not yet available).
Political Parties and Extra-Parliamentary groups
Far Left, Greens and Communists
There are very few
cases of plain antisemitism on the far left, and people or organizations
mentioned in this section cannot be labeled antisemitic. However, they support
various forms of anti-Zionist and anti-Israel prejudice which convey a
distorted view of the situation in the Middle East to members and voters, and
add to the confusion between Israelis, Zionists and Jews. Demonization of Israel and its people continues to be one of the reasons for the high level of antisemitism in France.
The Green Party and the Communist Party, which participated in the
Socialist-led coalition government between 1997 and 2002, are in the opposition
at the national level, but are part of regional council majorities in some
areas (such as the Ile de France region, in Paris). The Trotskyite far left has
never aspired to join any coalition. These political forces are part of the
anti-globalization movement.
There are three Trotskyite factions: the
Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR; led by Olivier Besancenot), Lutte
Ouvrière (led by Arlette Laguiller) and the Parti des Travailleurs (led
by Daniel Gluckstein), which together polled 10.44 percent in the 2002
presidential election. Anti-Zionism is historically part of their agenda, and
they support the idea of one democratic and secular state in
Israel/Palestine, although some voices within the LCR now openly advocate a
two-state solution. Not all favor an alliance with political Islam: in fact, as
rigorously secular parties, both Lutte Ouvrière and the PT are against
it, while the LCR is divided. Pro-Islamists are influenced by the Socialisme
par en bas faction − which might be regarded as a French branch of the
British Socialist Workers Party − which has integrated into the LCR. The
LCR maintains close relations with the Palestinian PFLP (Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine), whose leader in Gaza, Rabah Mhanna, was interviewed
in the weekly Rouge (25 May 2006).
The far left parties reacted to the Second
Lebanon War with a virulent attack against the Israeli response, which they labeled
aggression. They consider both Hamas and Hizballah as resistance forces,
despite their Islamist ideology. During the demonstrations which took place in Paris in support of this so-called resistance (especially on 29 July) the LCR, the
Communist Party and the Greens marched alongside Hizballah flag-waving
Islamists, the Agir contre la guerre (Stop the War) network, the Association
France-Palestine Solidarité (AFSP) and the Indigènes de la République. However, Lutte Ouvrière did not participate. While condemning the Israel intervention, it declared that Hamas and Hizballah do not deserve any sympathy (Lutte
Ouvrière weekly, 21 July).
The Communist Party is much more divided
than it seems on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Fringe Orthodox Communists
are outspokenly anti-Zionist. The leadership led by Marie-George Buffet
continues to condemn Israels aggressive policies (especially the security
fence) and many Communist-led municipalities host one-sided exhibitions on Palestine. However, the party supports a two state solution, recognizes the right of Israel to exist and maintains loose contacts with CRIF. The Communist-led Conseil
Général de Seine Saint-Denis, a densely immigrant-populated area
near Paris, has a cooperation agreement with the Israeli city of Akko and sent 15,000 euros to the Akko municipality after it was attacked by Hizballah rockets.
Mouloud Aounit, secretary general of the
anti-racist MRAP (Mouvement national contre le racisme) and a regional councilor elected on a Communist slate,
is very anti-Israel and supports dialogue with the followers of Swiss
fundamentalist theologian Tariq Ramadan (see below). Aounit lost his bid for
the Communist candidacy to the June 2007 general election in the Islamist
stronghold of La Courneuve.
The Green Party is divided on the
Israel/Palestine issue, too, although the majority of the leadership and rank
and file, while recognizing the State of Israel, equate it with imperialism
and occupation. In a press release issued on 7 November, it greeted
positively the formation of the national union government of the Palestinian
Authority which included Hamas and, although condemning both Hizballahs
bombing of Israel and Israels disproportionate retaliation, it called for
European Union sanctions against Israel. In some places, Green Party leaders
cooperate with the followers of Tariq Ramadan, as in Roubaix, where prominent
Green activists Ali Rahni and Sihem Andalouci are also national leaders of the
Collectif des Musulmans de France (see below), which supports Ramadans attempt
to build a coalition between political Islam and the anti-globalization left.
Paris Senator Alima Boumediene-Thiery, a former member of the European
Parliament, is particularly active within the ranks of the pro-Palestinian
organizations.
The anti-globalization movement is not
monolithic and issues relating to antisemitism, the Middle East and political
Islam generate much internal dissension. The weekly Charlie Hebdo, for
example, though describing itself as anti-globalization is at the forefront
of the fight against Islamist and left-wing antisemitism, as is the essayist
Caroline Fourest, who wrote several books on those topics. The Union des
Familles Laïques (UFAL), which promotes a strictly secular (even
anti-religious, and particularly anti-Islamist) society, is chaired by Bernard
Teper, who publicly supports the Communist Party candidate for president of the
republic, Marie-George Buffet, because of its socio-economic platform. ATTAC,
the leading anti-globalization organization, originally founded to support the
concept of the Tobin tax on financial profits, is divided between a radical
left tendency, favoring dialogue with Ramadans followers, and a strictly
secular, republican left, anti-Islamist one, led by Pierre Cassen. On the other
hand, the monthly Le Monde diplomatique, the weekly Politis and the
left-leaning Catholic weekly Témoignage Chrétien, support
Palestinian organizations and Third World liberation movements, because of their
anti-colonialist history.
In 2006, factions of the
anti-globalization left tried unsuccessfully to agree on a common candidate for
the 2007 presidential election. José Bové, leader of the peasant
union Confédération Paysanne, was a possible choice. He is well-known
for his anti-Israel views and was deported by the Israeli authorities in April
2002. The anti-globalization Internet portal, Indymedia (http://indymedia.paris.org) is often
accused of allowing antisemitic texts to be posted online.
Several far left groups are single-issue ones,
devoted to the cause of Palestine or the so-called resistance. The most
radical are CAPJPO (Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au
Proche-Orient), which in 2004 was the driving force behimd the Euro-Palestine
slate in the Euro-Parliament election; the Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, which campaigns for the freedom of a Lebanese
terrorist who killed an Israeli diplomat in Paris in 1982; and the Association
Générale des Etudiants de Nanterre (AGEN), a Maoist students union
with a pro-Islamist, pro-resistance and anti-imperialist platform. A
radical Palestinian group emerged in 2006: the Mouvement
de Soutien à la Résistance du Peuple Palestinien (MSRPP), led by
Walid Attalah. On 30 March, the MSRPP invited PFLP and Hamas officials and a
member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to speak at a conference in Ivry, near Paris; Only Rabah Mhanna from PFLP could participate, as the others were denied visas, and
the Communist mayor of Ivry banned the event, which later took place in Paris as a video-conference. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh spoke via telephone.
Extreme Right Parties
The Front National (FN), founded in 1973
and led by Jean-Marie Le Pen (born, 1928), claims a membership of approximately
50,000 but only about 15,000 are active. It holds 160 seats in the regional councils,
about 500 in the city councils and 7 in the Euro-Parliament, but none in the
French Parliament. The party officially launched Le Pens 2007 presidential
campaign on 10 November. Under the guidance of his daughter Marine, several
major changes were instituted with the purpose of modernizing the party and
moderating its image. Consequently, on 20 September, Le Pen visited the village of Valmy, on the anniversary of the battle during which the French army defeated the
Prussian/Austrian forces in 1792, thus securing the victory of the republic. In
contrast to his previous anti-immigration diatribes, Le Pen called for an
alliance of both native and immigrant French people against the political
elite and globalization. He continued to woo the immigrant, especially Muslim, population
by receiving controversial comedian Dieudonné MBala MBala (well known
for his extreme anti-Zionism and tried several times on charges of antisemitism
− see below) at the party convention of 11 November. The event was reportedly
prepared by Alain Soral, an anti-Zionist novelist expelled from the Communist
Party because of his red-brown connections, and now an adviser to Marine Le
Pen, leading a faction called Egalité et Réconciliation (www.alainsoral.com). In December, the
party printed an election poster featuring a young woman from the Maghreb as a FN militant. The party also courted the (non-existent) Jewish vote: Marine Le
Pen became a member of the delegation for relations with Israel in the Euro-Parliament and was scheduled to travel to Israel as part of this group at the end
of October. However, the Israeli government barred her from participating in
political meetings arranged for the delegation (but, contrary to press reports,
did not ban her entry into Israel).
This attempt to change
the partys confinement to the extreme right of the political spectrum is,
however, purely tactical. On several occasions, Marine Le Pen clearly said that
she did not intend to change the partys ideology, and that she was not a
French version of Italys Gianfranco Fini (see Italy). Marine
Le Pens policies are challenged within the FN by those who want the party to adhere
to its former agenda. Her major opponent is Bruno Gollnisch, the partys
second-in-command. A party congress where the matter of Le Pens succession
will certainly be discussed is scheduled for November 2007.
In 2006, the FN lost
several of the public offices it had held: Jacques Bompard, the mayor of Orange, and Marie-Christine Bignon, the mayor of Chauffailles, joined the arch-conservative
Mouvement pour la France (MPF), led by Philippe de Villiers. De Villiers, a
member of the Euro-Parliament and a former minister, aroused controversy within
the Jewish community because of his strong anti-Islam statements. The MPF,
whose national leadership now includes many former FN executives, holds five
seats in the French Parliament and two in the Euro-Parliament. It stands for
family, including pro-life, values (the influence of traditional Catholicism is
strong within the party) and campaigns against the islamization of France. However, while its language often borders on anti-Muslim prejudice, it is neither antisemitic
nor anti-Israel. Following the murder of Ilan Halimi (see below), Villiers
attended the religious ceremony held in his memory at the Central Synagogue of
Paris (23 Feb.). He tried to attend the march organized on 26 February 26 by
CRIF, LICRA (Ligue internationale contre le racisme et lantisemitisme) and SOS-Racisme, but was expelled by militants of the
anti-racist organizations, who felt his presence was inappropriate. A dispute subsequently
ensued within the Jewish community on the issue of relations with Villiers.
While CRIF acknowledged that Villiers was not an antisemite, it chose not to
invite him to its activities in order not to be accused of anti-Muslim bias.
The Mouvement National
Républicain (MNR), led by Bruno Mégret, maintains a very low
profile because of lack of support and meager financial means. The party began
talking with the FN about a possible agreement for the 2007 general election.
Far Right Extra-parliamentary Groups and
Activities
According to the Renseignements
Généraux (the state security police) the total number of far
right activists in 2004/5 was 2,500−3,500. The report stressed that the
main target of far right activity was now the Muslim community. It identified
20 groups, split into five ideological subdivisions: the skinhead movement
(1,000−1,500 activists) (see ASW 2005); the
Identity movement; ultra-nationalists; neo-Nazis and soccer hooligans. This
situation still held in 2006.
The Identity
movement (total membership, according to the police report, 500) revolves
around Bloc Identitaire, led by Guillaume Luyt, Philippe Vardon and Fabrice
Robert. It publishes the quarterly ID (for Identité),
which has an address in Belgium in order to avoid prosecution. In 2006, the
Bloc featured prominently in the media due to the initiative of its sister organization,
Solidarité des Français, to distribute pork meals to the homeless
in Paris, thus excluding both Jews and Muslims. This scheme was banned in
December by the Paris Police Authority, but an administrative court overruled
the decision a few days later. The Bloc also maintains an online press agency
Novopress (www.novopress.info) and
focuses its political activity on the city of Nice. A rival national
revolutionary faction is led by Christian Bouchet, former leader of Nouvelle
Résistance and Unité Radicale (see ASW 2001/2). His organization,
Réseau Radical, which runs the www.voxnr.com website and publishes the magazine Résistance!,
numbers about 40 loosely organized activists. The group promotes hard-line
anti-Zionism and supports Palestinian jihad and Arab nationalist movements such
as the Ba`ath party and Muslim fundamentalist groups. Another Identity
movement is Terre et Peuple, led by former GRECE president and FN national
leadership member Pierre Vial, who returned to the FN in 2006. The RED
(Rassemblement des Etudiants de Droite) is a student group with a record of violence
and extreme antisemitism, led by a young black woman, Sophie Monlouis; it
published the first issue of its magazine Le Dissident, in November
2006.
The ultra-nationalist
movement comprises groups of 30 and 80 followers: Œuvre française,
a rabidly antisemitic group led by Pierre Sidos, who supported Le Pens candidacy
in the presidential election; Renouveau Français (publication: LHéritage),
the new name of the Garde Franque (a fascist and Catholic fundamentalist group
belonging to the transnational European National Front); and Jeunes
Bonapartistes (publication: La Cocarde; the March 2006 issue was devoted
to a biased look at Israel and Zionism).
Neo-Nazis (who may
also be skinheads) were responsible for many Jewish cemetery desecrations, as
well as the desecration of mosques and Muslim cemeteries. However, 2006 was a
quiet year in this regard. The two people who vandalized the Jewish cemetery of Herrlisheim (Alsace) in 2004, were arrested in January 2006. One of them was a
neo-Nazi who also tried to murder a Moroccan immigrant. In a December 2006
landmark decision, a court sentenced unaffiliated neo-Nazis who had set fire to
a mosque in Haute-Savoie to jail terms without parole. Another active neo-Nazi
group is the French section of the German-Austrian based Truppenkameradschaft
IV, an association of former French Waffen-SS soldiers affiliated to HIAG
(Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen
− Mutual help association for members of the former armed SS), which attracts younger recruits to the neo-Nazi
scene. The web also hosts a handful of French neo-Nazi antisemitic websites,
among them http://www.herveryssen.blogspot.com
(personal page of Hervé Ryssen) and http://1.volkermord.com.
Although violent, antisemitic and racist, those groups are perceived today as
posing a minor threat when compared to radical Islamist organizations.
Islamist Groups
The power of the Islamist movement should
be assessed in proportion to the number of Muslims living in France, which lies
between 4 and 6 million (higher figures are used in order to portray France as
a Muslim-dominated country, or by Islamists to exaggerate their strength), as
well as to level of religious practice among French Muslims, which is only about
15 percent. On the other hand, anti-Jewish prejudice among those who are devout
remains high: according to a survey released in 2005 by the academic
institution CEVIPOF, 46 percent of religious Muslims manifest some kind of
antisemitic prejudice, while 28 percent do not (see ASW 2005). However, according to the 2006 annual report
of the official Commission Nationale des Droits de lHomme, over 45 percent of
perpetrators of antisemitic incidents were French citizens or foreigners with a
Muslim immigrant background (whether practicing Muslims or not), while the
extreme right was responsible for about 10 percent.
The representative
body of religious Muslims is the Conseil Français du Culte Musulman
(CFCM), elected in June 2005. This organization is divided between three
factions: moderate followers of the Grande Mosquée de Paris, led by CFCM
chairman Dalil Boubakeur and supported by the Algerian government; the orthodox
Sunni Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF; led by Laj Thami
Breze), guided by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and by the Egyptian-born
Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the UOIFs supreme religious authority; and the
Fédération Nationale des Musulmans de France, a predominantly
Moroccan organization whose former chairman, Mohamed Bechari, is reportedly
close to the Moroccan Islamist PJD (Party of Justice and Development).
The UOIF remains a controversial
organization. It appears to be split now between the older followers of the
national leadership (mostly Tunisian), who are predominantly foreign-born, and
a younger generation of French-born people, who complain about the high degree
of political interference, both from abroad and from within the country. The
younger generation, influenced by Tariq Ramadan (who has now parted ways with
UOIF) and preachers such as Hassan Iquioussen, is often more vocal and more
radical than the older one when it comes to relations with the Jews and Israel. On the Middle East issue, UOIF supports the Palestinians through the Committee
for Charity and Assistance to Palestinians (CBSP),
which is authorized to raise money for institutions linked to the Islamic
movement of the Arab-Israeli mayor of Umm al-Fahm, Shaykh Ra`id Salah. In 2006,
CBSP sued the Simon Wiesenthal Center (CSW) for libel, following the
publication of a CSW report claiming that the money the charity raised was
being used to finance terrorist acts, especially those of Hamas. Although the
report did not provide evidence, it is public knowledge that CBSP lends political
support to Hamas and financial help to the families of the movement. The UOIF
supports a socially conservative agenda, preferring collaboration with
right-wing parties, lately with François Bayrous Mouvement
Démocrate.
The Swiss theologian
Tariq Ramadan, and the groups that disseminate his thinking, Présence
Musulmane and the Collectif des Musulmans de France, have a sizeable following
among young Muslims of the middle and upper classes. Ramadan, who advocates a
modern orthodox Islam, rooted in the reality of European societies and values,
has close ties to the anti-globalization movement and the Green Party, where
Ramadan's virulent anti-Zionism is well received. The
Ramadan tendency and radical left thinkers critical of Zionism and Israel meet at the main French Islamic website, www.oumma.com. Since Ramadan now lives mainly in the United Kingdom, he is barely mentioned in the French media.
The important role of
the Internet in the emergence of a virtual Muslim identity in France is evident in several well-designed sites with a wide readership, such as www.saphirnet.info and www.mejliss.com,
the latter noteworthy for its antisemitic comments and conspiracy theories. In
December, Smain Bedrouni, the webmaster of http://st.com
(a jihadist website) and an Islamist with a long record of antisemitic writings,
appeared before a Paris court on a charge of posting articles filled with antisemitic
abuse against the president of the anti-racist organization MRAP, Mouloud
Aounit, a pro-Palestinian Muslim and supporter of Tariq Ramadan.
Of particular concern
to the authorities is the growing Salafi movement, inspired by Saudi ulama
(Muslim scholars). According to a report of the Renseignements
Généraux, the Salafis number some 5,000 and control about 30
mosques. Salafi activity is noticeable especially on the Internet, at sites
such as www.darwa.com, http://www.sounnah.free.fr and http://www.salafs.com
(see ASW 2005). There is no organized, open expression of the
jihadist trend, such as that characterizing the British al-Ghurabaa or the
Saved Sect, for example. However, the French security services regularly
dismantle cells that support jihad or plot terrorist actions. In December,
Rachid Ramda was sentenced to 10 years in jail for his participation in the
1995 bombings in Paris, while the trial of six French detainees at Guantanamo was postponed until 2007. The French government also deports imams who incite
racial hatred and antisemitism in their sermons. In September, Chellali
Benchelalli, an Algerian Salafi imam from Lyon was deported with his wife and
children, following their conviction for involvement in a jihadist cell. In
November, Billel Chouhir, a Tunisian Salafi, was also deported. The most surprising
police operation in 2006 was the arrest of Imam Dhaou Meskine, a Tunisian
follower of Ennahda, accused of financing terrorism. A well-known figure,
Meskine preached in Clichy sous Bois, the source of the urban riots of 2005. He
was known as one of the very few imams who held an open dialogue with the
Jewish community, acknowledged the truth of the Holocaust and fought against antisemitism.
It is unknown to this day whether he is a real radical or the victim of a plot.
Three other Islamic
fundamentalist groups are widely represented: the pietist Tabligh movement,
estimated at about 10 percent of religious Muslims; Foi et Pratique which split
from it, led by Tunisian Muhammad Hamami; and the French branch of the
Lebanon-based Ahbachi movement, with headquarters in Montpellier, under the
leadership of Shaykh Khalid al-Zant. All in all, the level of Islamist activity
is high, as too is the risk of terrorist activity, according to the state
security services, because of repeated fatwas of the emirs of the Algerian,
al-Qa`ida-affiliated GSPC (Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat, among other names, whose
website can be accessed from France at http://almedad.com/vb),
and cells of the Moroccan Groupe Islamiste Combattant Marocain (GICM).
Radical Anti-Zionist Scene
Support for radical Islam and extremist
Palestinian movements is not confined to the ranks of Islamic fundamentalists.
The war in Iraq radicalized Muslims who view themselves more as Arab nationalists than as religious zealots. Anti-Zionist militants often try to build alliances with
secular groups belonging to both ends of the political spectrum. This was seen once
again during the summer of 2006 when Israel confronted Hizballah in Lebanon,
and demonstrations against the Israeli intervention were attended by all far left
groups (with the LCR at the forefront), the Communist Party and major
pro-Palestinian organizations such as the LAssociation France Palestine
Solidarité (AFPS), but
also by small groups of Shi`i followers of Hizballah. The latter are
concentrated in the vicinity of the Ghadir Muslim Center in Montreuil, where Imam
Sadreddin Fadlallah is a nephew of the Lebanese cleric Shaykh Muhammad Husayn
Fadlallah, and the Centre Zahra, near Dunkerque (which filed a complaint
against Israel with the International Court of Justice in 2006, because of
alleged war crimes in Lebanon). Hizballah gained considerable prestige in 2006
because it is viewed, even by secular militants, as the vanguard of the fight
against the Zionist entity. The same can be said of Hamas, whose religious
agenda is seldom mentioned by pro-Palestinian supporters, who prefer to see it
as a resistance movement attune to the people, compared to the allegedly
corrupt and overly moderate PLO. Among secular but radical groups, CAPJPO
(Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient), is led by a
Jew, Olivia Zemor, and campaigns for the boycott of Israeli goods and for the
severance of scientific cooperation ties between French and Israeli
universities, and the French branch of the International Solidarity Movement. Friends
of Hamas has created an umbrella organization, the Mouvement de Soutien à la Résistance du Peuple Palestinien (MSRPP), led by Walid Attallah. Other far left groups
supporting a radical agenda on the Israel-Palestine issue are the Mouvement de
lImmigration et des Banlieues (MIB) and the Indigènes de la République, which specifically target French citizens of Arab/Muslim descent and promote
the notion that the contemporary French state treats immigrants as it did their
forefathers in North Africa when France was a colonial power. Both movements
link the fight against criminalization of Muslims in France to the Palestinians struggle against Western imperialism.
Finally, Réseau
Voltaire, led by Thierry Meyssan, disseminates conspiracy theories intended to
demonstrate that the 9/11 bombings were a joint US-Israeli plot aimed at
justifying the war against radical Islam. Originally a left-wing, anti-fascist
and pro-gay rights group, Réseau Voltaire became a rallying point for
anti-Zionists of all kinds after 2001.
Anti-Jewish
Prejudice among the Afro-Caribbean Community
Antisemitism within the Afro-Caribbean
community featured prominently in the media in 2006 because of three events:
the murder of Ilan Halimi (see below); active connections between well-known
comedian Dieudonné MBala MBala, the FN, the fascist extreme right
and Réseau Voltaire; and the emergence of the black activist supremacist
group Tribu KA. Dieudonné, who promotes
the theory that the trade of African slaves was a Jewish enterprise and that
France is ruled by Zionists (Jews) and neo-Zionists (Gentile supporters of
Israel), stood for the French presidency but did not gather the necessary
support from elected officials, a condition for candidacy, and he withdrew from
the race. However, he succeeded in building a coalition of supporters ranging
from the anti-Zionist radical left (Ginette Skandrani) through Islamists (Shaykh
Sefrioui, from the Comité Sheikh Yassine, a Hamas supporter) to former
far right activists (his chief of staff, known as Marc Robert, was former FN
member Marc George). Dieudonné visited Lebanon and Syria in September 2006, where he met with Hizballah and Ba`ath party officials. The
delegation included Thierry Meyssan; well-known former neo-Nazi
Frédéric Chatillon and Alain Soral (see above). In November,
Dieudonné attended the presidential convention of FN in Paris, where he briefly met Le Pen, for whom he expressed support throughout the campaign.
Dieudonné spreads his message through http://lesogres.org,
currently the most virulently anti-Jewish website with any influence.
Even more extreme than
Dieudonné is the racist, separatist Tribu KA, which spreads outright
hatred of Jews under the leadership of its guru Kemi Seba (an alias). Believing
in a mixture of Egyptian divinities and black supremacism, the movement claims
that the black man was once the ruler of the world while the white man was culturally
inferior. In 2006, the Tribu KA made its presence known by confronting Jews in
the streets. On 28 May, a group of 40 demonstrators marched in the Jewish area
of Le Marais in Paris, shouting antisemitic abuse at passers-by and seeking a
fight with Betar and Jewish Defense League activists. Following what could have
been a very serious incident, Jewish organizations called for a ban on the
group, fearing an escalation of violence similar to that which occurred in the
wake of the murder of Ilan Halimi by a black-led gang. Subsequently, Tribu KA
was banned by then Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy on 26 July and its
website closed by a court order on 14 August (it has now moved to www.seba-wsr.com). In September, Tribu KA,
now operating under the name Génération Kemi Seba, organized an anti-Zionist
summit, with neo-fascists and Islamists. Although the Islamists did not show
up, several activists from Réseau Radical and Renouveau Français
regularly attend the groups activities.
antisemitic activity
A total of 371
antisemitic incidents were recorded in France in 2006 compared to 300 in 2005, an increase of 24 percent, according to CRIF. Figures from the Ministry of the Interior
are even higher: 541 antisemitic incidents, compared to 506 in 2005, an increase of 6 percent. The most serious antisemitic act by far was the kidnapping and
killing, in February, of Ilan Halimi, which raised a huge national controversy
about the extent of antisemitism in France.
The Murder of Ilan Halimi
In January, Ilan
Halimi, a cellphone retailer who worked in a Jewish district of Paris, was
abducted by a gang on 21 January and died of his wounds shortly after he was
found on 13 February by police near a railroad track. This was the most serious
antisemitic act to have been recorded in France in decades, and probably the
only murder of a French Jew motivated clearly by antisemitism; the case is
expected to go to trial in 2008. The Halimi case caused a national trauma and
was seen by the Jewish community, as well as by most politicians and the mainstream
media, as the culmination of the wave of antisemitism that began in France in fall 2000.
Halimi was captured by a group of criminals known as the Barbarians,
led by Youssouf Fofana, originally from the Ivory Coast. Prior to kidnapping
Halimi, the gang had tried to blackmail well-known Jewish lawyers and doctors,
because, as Fofana later admitted, they thought that if they asked for a
ransom, the entire Jewish community would help in collecting the money.
Ironically, Fofana, who hates Jews and Zionists because he thinks they hate black,
blackmailed a well-known anti-Zionist doctor, Rony Brauman. The gang consisted
of people of various origins: African, Caribbean, Caucasian (including a
Portuguese immigrant) and North African, many of them known to the police for
various breaches of the law. By their own admission, the gang members selected
their victim because he was Jewish and worked in a Jewish-owned shop in a largely
Jewish neighborhood. After he was detained by the gang, Halimi was severely
beaten, some say tortured, while they shouted antisemitic abuse at him. Fofana
asked for a ransom of half a million euro, which he knew the family could not
pay but believed that the Jewish community would raise in the synagogues. To
this end, he contacted the Paris rabbi of a particularly well-off community, so
that he might act as a go-between the French Jewish community and the gang.
When they raided the gang members homes, the police found antisemitic
and neo-Nazi literature at one, and pages printed from a Salafi website at Fofanas.
Though the latter was described by his father as a devout Muslim, the police
claim that none of the gang was connected to Islamism. Shortly after the police
found Halimi, Fofana fled to the Ivory Coast, where he was reportedly protected
by at least one faction fighting the civil war, on the grounds that he is black
and an Ivory Coast citizen and that he would not be treated fairly by the
French police. However, he was extradited and has been in jail since his
return, on 4 March. From his cell, Fofana regularly writes letters filled with
threats, antisemitic language and Islamist/jihadist proclamations to the judge
in charge of the case. However, since he faces a life sentence without parole,
many say that he is seeking to be declared mentally insane, which is his only chance
of receiving a lighter sentence. Fofana has dismissed many of his lawyers,
including Philippe Missamou, who also acts as counsel for the Tribu KA and
various African supremacist groups.
Following Halimis death, a memorial service was held on 23 February at
the Central Synagogue of Paris, attended by President Chirac, Prime Minister de
Villepin and leaders of the major political parties. On 26 February, a
demonstration took place in Paris, organized by CRIF, LICRA and SOS-Racisme,
attended by then Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy and Minister of
Foreign Affairs Philippe Douste-Blazy, among others officials and public
figures (a small FN delegation was present unofficially).
Violence and
Harassment
The trend of antisemitic
attacks on children continued (see ASW 2004, 2005). In
January, two 11-year-old Jewish children were attacked in Paris by five youths of
North African appearance. They hit and tried to strangle someone who
intervened. The three victims were taken to hospital. Also in January, a group
of school girls shouted "Dirty Jews, well send you back to Warsaw. Go back to the extermination camps. Heil Hitler. Long live the Arabs" at
Jewish girls from a neighboring school in Strasbourg. The girls were also
physically harassed. On 15 July a group threw stones and garbage and shouted
antisemitic insults at children at a Jewish summer camp in Villeurbanne. The
attackers returned to the area on the following day, but the children were kept
away (see also General Analysis).
Antisemitic violence broke out in the wake of a soccer match between the
Israeli Hapoel Tel Aviv and PSG (Paris St. Germain). Right-wing extremists gave
Nazi salutes accompanied by vulgar racist and antisemitic insults. A French Jew
attacked by the mob was rescued by a police officer, who was in turn assaulted.
He then shot into the mob, killing one PSG fan and seriously wounding a second.
President Jacques Chiracand Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy deplored the
racial violence. FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen condemned the shooting.
responses to racism and antisemitism
Public/Official Action
In a report
submitted on 21 March to Prime Minister de Villepin, the Commission nationale
consultative des droits de lhomme (CNCDH), recommended measures to fight antisemitism,
including a campaign stressing the gravity of racial, antisemitic and
xenophobic propaganda. Also, in March, the Department of Education ratified the inclusion in the curriculum of Holocaust studies, antisemitism and Jewish-Arab relations in 60 French schools in 2007.
Legal Activity
Three youths
were sentenced to nine months in prison by an Annecyin court in September,
after being convicted of beating a 16-year-old Jewish boy near Lake Annecy.
On
10 March a Paris court fined the comedian Dieudonné MBala MBala 5,000
euro for telling Le Journal du Dimanche in 2004 that Jews had been slave
traders and were now bankers, heads of show business and terrorists. In 2004,
Dieudonné was acquitted of previous charges of antisemitism (see ASW 2004).
On
23 October, a court in Colmar, eastern France, fined Emmanuel Rist 700 euros
for sending letters saying Jew equals Zyklon B to local newspapers, a Jewish
organization and two members of the Jewish community. He is also one of the
accused in the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Herrlisheim, France, in April 2004, when 127 graves were smeared with antisemitic and neo-Nazi graffiti
(see above).
On 3
October, Robert Faurisson was given a three-month suspended sentence and fined
7,500 euros by a Paris court for denial of the Holocaust in his sixth
conviction for that offense. In February 2005 Faurisson granted an interview to
the Iranian satellite TV channel Sahar 1, during which he declared that the
Nazis did not try to exterminate the Jews and that there were no gas chambers
at Auschwitz. Sahar1 has been banned in France since March 2005 for transmitting
antisemitic broadcasts. Faurissons lawyer, Eric Delcroix, demanded his release
in the name of freedom of speech.
Early
in November, a Lyons court fined Bruno Gollnisch, second in command of the FN,
10,000 euro for questioning the existence of the Holocaust on 11 October 2004. In October 2005 Gollnisch was banned from teaching for five years. The
latest penalty was given after Gollnisch conceded on the eve of the trial that
he recognized the existence of the gas chambers.
On
15 January, a French court fined Yahoo $15 million for selling Nazi
memorabilia. The suit was filed by LICRA and UEJF (Union des étudiants
juïfs de France) in 2000.
On 6
June, a suit filed by French Green Party deputy Alain Lipietz against France
and the French National Railroad (SNCF) for their responsibility in deporting
his father in WWII was upheld by a Toulouse court, in the first ruling that the
SNCF can be held responsible. Previously, it was argued that since the German
army controlled the SNCF, it could not be held culpable. France and the SNCF
were fined $77,000. The SNCF intends to appeal the sentence. The new ruling was
criticized by Jewish officials who said that if there were many lawsuits French
Jews would suffer from a backlash. Since then the railroad company has received
1,200 suits from Holocaust survivors.
