Unraveling deceitful Judeo-Muslim dialogue

French authorities are hoping that the truce in the Middle East will extend to their own territory.
Over the past three weeks, over sixty anti-Semitic incidents have occurred throughout the country: Molotov cocktails were thrown at synagogues, a dozen youths were assaulted, Jewish institutions were tagged and two Jewish artists – TV star Arthur and emblematic Sepharadi singer Enrico Macias – were prevented from performing. Meanwhile three young Muslims were targeted by a bunch of pro-Israeli militants, presumably from the Jewish Defense League and an imam known for his tolerant ways was assaulted by Muslims.

The media lashed out at Israel for its offensive and tens of thousands protested in the streets – often in support of Hamas - but a surprising poll showed an evolution in public opinion regarding the conflict. Indeed, 23% considered Hamas was responsible for the crisis, while 18% accused the Israeli government. 28% said they were both responsible and the rest couldn’t say.

The less expected effect of the war, here in France, is the collapse of the Judeo-Muslim Friendship Association, founded by Rabbi Michel Serfaty. All of its Muslim officials resigned because their Jewish counterparts didn’t openly condemn Israel for its operations.
Co-chairman Djelloul Seddiki said remaining neutral wasn’t enough: his Jewish colleagues had to condemn Israel.

Rabbi Serfaty said he was surprised, for he remained silent and expressed no support for Israel precisely to please his Muslim counterparts.
Meanwhile Djelloul Seddiki and his friends protested against Israel without mentioning Hamas’s role in the flare-up. So much for dialogue…

Rabbi Michel Sefaty (photo:UEJF)

Rabbi Serfaty is an engaging figure. The tall former basketball player, with his wide black hat and Clint Eastwood stare launched his battle for friendship after being assaulted in the street while walking to the synagogue with his son in 2003. Instead of running along, the rabbi faced his attackers and asked them to explain themselves. He then created the Jewish Muslim Friendship Association to deconstruct stereotypes.

Throughout the years the rabbi has been dragging his congregation, family and fellow Jews along in his initiatives. Every summer he drives his association’s ‘Friendship bus’ across France and neighboring countries with a number of Muslim and Jewish militants advocating dialogue. They go everywhere, from the beaches of Marseille to the rough suburbs around Paris. They don’t spare an effort. But sometimes they have to cave in and make sacrifices.

Rabbi Serfaty sided with his Muslim colleagues over the Danish Mohammad cartoons controversy. The drawings had been reprinted in a couple of French newspapers and the Muslim umbrella group CFCM decided to bring the issue to court in a lawsuit which it eventually lost.
At the time several Jewish leaders, among them former French chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk, criticized the cartoons. Rabbi Serfaty told me he wasn’t, like some French rabbis, against all cartoons criticizing religion. Mocking Moses or Jesus was fine for him. But he strongly opposed drawings criticizing Islam, saying Muslims are different. “The Christians and us have been living in this free speech environment for centuries. They’ve only just arrived. We don’t care about these caricatures but they get hurt.” When I asked him if he did not think many Muslims would be offended if treated differently from the rest of society, he responded that the important thing for him was avoiding a flare-up. “The main goal is to maintain social peace”.

It seems as if this time, condemning Israel – and Israel alone - was a price the rabbi wasn’t willing to pay, even to save his cherished association. Or was he simply taken by surprise ?

Still, Rabbi Serfaty is far from lost. If the crisis in the Middle East taught us anything, it’s that façade dialogue is useless. Uniting to settle kashrut and Hallal issues or to condemn the Jerusalem gay pride is not really a breakthrough. France needs a genuine Judeo-Muslim dialogue between religious and secular leaders.
And the crisis showed us that these leaders exist and who they are.
While tens of thousands demonstrated in the streets, a number of Muslim leaders refused to join them and repeated France had to stay away from the conflict, while respecting each others’ views on the conflict.

French minister Fadela Amara, a strong secular figure in charge of the impoverished suburbs, gathered in her ministry various associations to discuss and organize the battle against anti-Semitism and racism. This wasn’t surprising as Amara, who had strongly supported the Geneva initiative a few years back, has been fighting for tolerance and against sexism in France for years with her women’s association ‘Ni putes ni soumises’.

Imam Hassen Chalghoumi and his family, from the suburb of Drancy, have paid once again during this outburst for their tolerant approach. The imam who advocates genuine dialogue has been assaulted again and his family threatened after he denounced anti-Semitism and called for peace.
“How far will you go? Watch out!” told him North African men as he was walking down the street. Others vandalized his car and threatened him over the phone.
Chalghoumi said nothing would alter his dialogue with the Jewish community although he couldn’t stop thinking of the events in Gaza.
“People from my congregation ask me ‘why is this happening? This isn’t fair.’ And I answer ‘that’s war. It’s never fair.’”

Chalghoumi is the imam of Drancy, a town where French Jews were gathered during World War II in a concentration camp before being deported to death camps. In 2006 the imam called on all Muslims to remember that part of history and pay their respects. Following his address at the Drancy memorial his children were threatened.
A few months ago he invited Jews to participate in the festivities ending the Ramadan. Chalghoumi was attacked following his initiatives. But that didn’t stop him.

Chilling hatred in snowy France

Temperatures haven't sunk so low in Paris for the past 3 decades. The streets are beautiful in the snow in the trendiest and loveliest neighbourhoods as well as in my own popular 20th quarter.
But you know what? Forget about the freezing wind. We get a much greater shiver these days when we hear about the Middle East, see Hamas flags in uptown Paris rallies, and hear about desecrated synagogues and assaulted men.

A burning car crashed into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in the south east of France last night, in what appears to be the latest attack in a recent wave of anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Jonathan Guez was lecturing some members of his congregation when a stolen car was rammed into the front gate, setting it on fire.
A second car was about to be crashed into the synagogue but the attackers abandoned the vehicle with the motor running and fled the area when a security alarm was set off. Police found Molotov cocktails in the cars and is searching for three suspects who were seen running away.

The attack is the latest in a wave of incidents targeting the French Jewish community over the past week which Jewish officials have linked to the unrest in the Middle East.

A 29-year old Jewish man was beaten up in a Paris underground station by 20 young men shouting “Palestine will prevail” following a pro-Palestinian rally in front of the capital's Opera Garnier.
A car with a giant menorah was vandalized and other vehicles were set alight in front of a synagogue in the Paris area. Meanwhile, the Jewish community is following closely the investigation over an attempted murder that left a Jewish doctor in a critical condition on Friday.
70-year-old Dr Desire Amsalem had been shot in the back.
In another symbolic incident, vandals damaged the “Wall of Peace” created by Jewish artist Clara Halter who pleads for peace in the Middle East.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is desperately trying to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel, warned against a contagion of the Mideast conflict and called on France’s communities to remain calm.
French newspapers qualify his attempt to reach a settlement "Mission Impossible" but the public seems to appreciate his efforts in the general international apathy.
Sarkozy's defreeze with Syria - Bachar el Assad's visit in France last summer and his invitation to the prestigious July 14 Bastille Day parade - is even praised in newspapers as a clairvoyant move.

Sarkozy's Interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie gathered Muslim and Jewish officials on Monday, moments ahead of the attack on the synagogue, to discuss the recent tensions and anti-Semitic slogans in rallies against the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip.

“The conflict should by no means spread to France,” said Richard Prasquier, the head of the Jewish umbrella organization CRIF. Prasquier invited his Muslim counterpart Mohamed Moussaoui to “overcome together” the current difficulties but stressed that certain religious leaders had incited against the Jewish community.

Moussaoui, who heads the Muslim umbrella organization CFCM, condemned all violence and said he was “determined to strengthen relations with the Jewish community in these difficult times.”
Both organizations launched on November 24 common efforts to battle jointly against ant-Semitism and Islamophobia.

However the events may turn in our lovely city, one cannot ignore a strange coincidence.
Yesterday, the day a synagogue was attacked in Toulouse, was also the first day of a major trial, the trial of the three suspects in the attack against the synagogue of Djerba - one of the oldest synagogues in the world. In this al-Qaeda-sponsored attack a Muslim man crashed his explosive-loaded truck into the gates of the ancient temple - killing 21 people. It all happened on April 11, 2002. The accused deny any kind of involvement.

The invisible arm of the WJC

As the World Jewish Congress is set to meet for its general assembly in January, its European branch is entrenched in an ongoing cold war between its western and eastern delegates.
On December 17, Russian businessman Moshe Kantor was easily re-elected president of the lobby with 55 votes, beating French senior challenger Roger Cukierman who got 28, but the latter, a former leader of the French umbrella association CRIF, told me the battle was far from over.

“I imagine the ongoing war between the East and the West will end with the election of the new president ?” I asked Mr Cukierman hours ahead of the vote.
“Obviously,” he answered ironically “after the election, our differences will fade away – just like in the [French] socialist party!” he said, referring to the spectacular split of the French left wing party after its internal election in November.

The French, Austrian, Portuguese and German communities have been criticising Mr Kantor’s leadership and approach, in some cases even before the billionaire took over the head of the EJC 18 months ago. Some criticise the tycoon’s soft lobbying over the Iranian nuclear issue.
“It seems that it is Mr Putin who convinced Mr Kantor of the relevance of his policies rather than the other way around…” evaluated Cukierman.

Mr. Kantor pleads for a friendly approach – working along with Moscow rather than criticising its cooperation with Tehran…but his opponents argue his stance lacks results.
Others have accused him of focusing on commemorations (Kantor financed the massive 60th anniversary of the “liberation” of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Kristallnacht commemoration in Brussels) rather than on the challenges the Jewish community is facing today.

All four communities left the lobby in 2008 after a contested vote to stretch the president’s mandate from 2 years to 4.
Some of them even considered creating a new pan-European Jewish lobby, perhaps even a partnership with the American Jewish Committee. This absolute nightmare for the EJC was averted by a thread.

“The idea of creating another European body was indeed considered for a time,” confirmed Cukierman, “but we dropped the plan when we realised it wouldn’t be effective because we would be competing with the EJC.”

The four rebellious communities came back to EJC late 2008 after Kantor accepted to hold elections as planned around June 2009. They thought they would challenge his policies from the inside, even compete for the leadership of the lobby.

But once the communities returned to the EJC, the body - which widely relies on Kantor’s 900 thousand-euro yearly contribution - announced flash elections, and the debate was cut short.

“The EJC can become a strong and influent organisation, but since the day it was created, 20 years ago, it’s a sort of sleeping beauty. It doesn’t really do much of anything,” argues Cukierman. “Our lobbying isn’t well coordinated. Simultaneous initiatives are launched separately in different countries while we should work together. We have to be in permanent contact with decision-makers and with the media in order to inform the public. We should work with the WJC. The EJC used to be its European arm.”

I asked the EJC, for which I worked during a short period of time in 2007, to send me a review of its initiatives over the past couple of years to challenge Mr Cukierman’s remarks, but it failed to do so.
Its secretary general simply told me that the inner conflict was settled and that the vote was announced on time.

Regarding the UN-sponsored Durban II conference due to take place in Geneva in April, which several countries have decided to boycott, Serge Cwajgenbaum said the EJC was still holding meetings to decide whether it would take action or not…
“We have yet to decide whether we’ll participate in the conference or boycott it,” said Cwajgenbaum.


The lobby and the anti-Semitic epidemic

Anti-Semitism is still a major concern throughout Europe. The EJC often denounces anti-Jewish assaults but it lacks an efficient strategy.

The Jewish community in France faced the problem a few years back.

“When I arrived to the head of the CRIF at the beginning of the year 2000, a new wave of anti-Semitism had just erupted – twenty synagogues and schools had been burned down, rabbis had been attacked - yet the authorities, President Chirac and the Left-wing government refused to admit it. The attackers had to specifically write anti-Semitic tags when desecrating synagogues in order for the attacks to be considered anti-Semitic.”

Today, France has solid laws which worsen verdicts in cases of anti-Semitic attacks. The next step was to get actual convictions in court.
Education is another important part of the battle as anti-Jewish stereotypes have flourished in French schools. The media of coarse can't be ignored either. An unbiased coverage is essential to win over the war on the anti-Semitic drive.
This strategy has to be extended to the rest of Europe, especially in these times of crisis in which Europe’s Jewry fears a rise of anti-Semitism.

Tears and Champagne

American elections have often led Parisian voters to tears and excessive drinking.
As citizens of another country they can naturally not hope to participate in the poll, but a great number of them nevertheless stay up throughout the night, follow the vote, and, strangely enough, feel left out, like un-consulted, invisible citizens.

They gather in bars and in front of city halls, waiting for the results to fall in. In most cases, they helplessly watch the candidates they dread the most win over the vote.
This was the case in 2000 and 2004 when George W. Bush was elected. The French were probably the greatest Gore and Kerry supporters in the world. The two would have won a landslide victory had they been running for our presidential palace. That’s why Bush’s victories hurt them so deeply.

Four years ago I watched my husband’s leftist friends leave for election nights with desperate looks on their faces, I always wondered why they inflicted such pain on themselves.
Early the next morning, as the sun was rising and results came in, they wandered around downtown Paris, drowning their misery in a glass of Beaujolais in bars that remained open for the occasion.

This year’s election ended in even more alcohol and tears than in Bush’s days, but this time they were tears of joy accompanied by confetti and the cheap new Beaujolais was replaced by champagne and macaroons.

People didn’t even have to say the words. Everyone’s eyes projected happiness and relief. The French don’t disrespect John McCain, they were just relieved to see the end of the Bush era. They could now turn back into proud America lovers again.

At my TV station France 24, which aims to become France’s CNN or BBC, about 100 journalists were called up to cover election night.
They have so well anticipated Obama’s victory that many of them spent the night watching CNN.

As I was taking the subway back home, the commuters were all reading the free newspapers handed out in train stations.
A little 5-year-old black boy was looking at the main headline, next to his father. He broke the silence reading out proudly “O-BA-MA. BA-RACK O-BA-MA”.

France’s black minority looks up to the American vote, hoping to get someday similar results. Obama’s victory brought joy, satisfaction, hope to some of Paris’s impoverished suburbs, - “Maybe Obama can make a difference here too” some residents said - but a feeling of bitterness quickly emerged, as they realized the gap existing between the US and France.
A few decades ago African-Americans, such as James Baldwin, came to France to write and work freely. Today, many bright French blacks leave for the US to get the jobs they aim for, which they didn’t manage to get in their home country. They usually return a few years later to their neighbourhoods, share their experience and help the less fortunate residents.

Under the Bush administration, the US embassy in Paris made great efforts to attract minority suburban youth to appreciate the US. Washington financed special programs to bring young Arabs and blacks to the US. Dozens have participated in the program. But now, the stream has turned into a torrential flow. Suburban youth who used to despise the US, were won over and are now inspired by America and by what seems to have turned back into a dream.

Mainstream French Jews, whom are known for their traditionalist and pro-Israeli views, may have regretted Hilary Clinton and John McCain’s defeats more than the average Frenchman. Intellectual André Glucksmann wrote one of the rare op-eds criticizing Obama and those who endorsed him in Europe. But on the whole, the community quickly reconsidered and is now eager to discover Obama’s approach to the situation in the Middle-East and regarding Iran.

***
Breakthrough in a 30-year-old antisemitic bombing


It’s a major breakthrough in the investigation over one of Europe’s major anti-Semitic attacks.
28 years ago, a blast killed 4 people and injured 20 others in front of a synagogue in Paris’s 16th quarter, on Copernicus Street.
It was the first lethal attack against the Jewish community since World War II. Last Thursday, the alleged terrorist was arrested in Canada.

Hassan Diab, a sociology professor at the Ottawa University who has Canadian and Lebanese citizenship, claims his innocence. French authorities said they have solid evidence against him and asked for a quick extradition. This may happen within a few months according to Mrs Michèle Alliot-Marie, French Interior minister.

The Jewish community welcomed the news of the arrest with relief. Richard Prasquier, the President of the Jewish umbrella group CRIF thanked the police for its dedication to the case over such a long period. but the synagogue’s former rabbi Michael Williams said the investigation was only reopened last year.
“For 27 years we have been completely ignored, never questioned by investigators. We obtained no information, although we were there when it all happened.” The rabbi told the French news agency “and then last year, police investigators came to see me for the first time.” The rabbi was particularly shocked by the reaction of the French street and media. “They said we were whiners… that’s when I learned that word, ‘whiners’.”

The breakthrough may be another sign of the French authorities’ new dedication to battle anti-Semitism. Maybe a part of the Sarkozy effect.

There’s an obvious change of approach since the attack took place. The Jewish community was deeply hurt by former Prime Minister Raymond Barre’s hasty reaction after the attack.
He said “terrorists had targeted Jews on their way to the synagogue but hurt innocent French citizens in the street.”
Barre, who passed away a few months ago, never regretted his words.

The Jewish community felt quite isolated at the time. And it sometimes still does today.

Community leaders keep denouncing anti-Semitism in Paris’s northern neighbourhoods, where various gangs have been fighting over territories.
One of the gangs gathers Jews, and they’ve been confronting other minorities.
Several Jews have been wounded. One of them, Rudy Haddad, was left in a coma.

Jewish leaders claim the attacks are anti-Semitic and denounce a growing isolation of Jewish families in those neighbourhoods. But the media and public classified the incidents as ‘ethnic violence’ and said they’re by no means anti-Semitic.
A Jewish journalist from my station even told me the Jews are the thugs who triggered ethnic violence.

Whatever the exact situation on the ‘field’ may be, Jews have an entirely different perception of the events than the rest of society.

« Zionists should move to Arizona! »

The first ‘Jerusalem Day’ to be held in Paris was banned by police on Saturday, following alerts on possible altercations and incitement.
Several anti-Israeli groups led by the Islamic Zahra Center were planning a joint rally next to the Eiffel tower to protest against “Zionism and imperialism”.

“We wanted to organise here in France Jerusalem Day, the event that was launched by Khomeini, but Zionist groups and media pressured authorities and police who banned the event at the last minute,” Zahra Center leader Yahia Gouasmi told me.

In a video posted on the organisation’s web site, Gouasmi says “Zionism is evil” and condemns the peace process in the Middle East.

“What right do they have to share Palestine? It’s not negotiable.” He says referring to the Palestinian Authority. “The Zionists won’t get a grain of sand. Let’s liberate our country! [...] Zionists, you still have time to leave. Move to Arizona!"

Palestinian officials in Paris gave no support to the initiative and have taken their distances in the past from various anti-Zionist groups, such as the Euro-Palestine list that ran for the European Parliamentary elections.

Actor and anti-Israeli militant Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, a former member of the Euro-Palestine list, participated in Saturday’s initiative. M’bala M’bala, who used to be the partner of Jewish comedian Eli Semoun, hosted a press conference in his theatre.

Zahra Center leaders stressed they were strongly endorsed by “anti-Zionist rabbis such as Shmiel Modche Borreman from Brussels.”

But police forces were particularly alerted by the presence of an extremist group M.D.I which had been banned by French authorities twice. The faction led by Stellio Capo Chichi, known as ‘Kemi Seba’, has been disbanded in 2006 because of its anti-Semitic actions and incitement. It has since reformed twice using different names. Meanwhile, its members have multiplied.

“The police knows that whenever we participate in a rally there’s action. That’s why they cancelled the protest,” an MDI militant told one of his friends at the location of the rally Saturday.

The MDI (the Movement of those who are Damned by Imperialism) accuses ‘Zionists’ of “being responsible for injustice and imperialism throughout the world”. French courts have ruled that Kemi Seba’s repeated attacks on ‘Zionists’ are ill-disguised incitements against Jews.
Kemi Seba and his militants threatened Jews on various occasions. One such attack in the Jewish quarter of the Marais (central Paris) led to the ban of the group by then-President Jacques Chirac.

Kemi Seba managed to grow stronger ever since. Once the leader of a small, exclusively black faction, he opened doors to other militants and his movement now comprises an ‘African faction’ and an ‘Arab faction’. He also developed contacts with white nationalist groups.
According to Le Monde newspaper, Kemi Seba is lobbying the youth in various suburbs and in Paris’s 19th quarter where ethnic tensions rose in recent months.

Jerusalem Day organisers told me they were planning a major reaction on Wednesday.

"Suspected" anti-Semitism?

Three Jewish adolescents aged 16 to 18 were attacked on Saturday afternoon as they were returning home from the Synagogue in Paris’s troubled northern 19th quarter, where anti-Semitic incidents have increased over the past few years.
The beating took place only meters away from where young Rudy Haddad had been assaulted in June by a group of black and Arab youths and young men, among them a soldier.

The three youths, who were all wearing skullcaps, passed by a group of six young men, when one of them was hit with a small rock in the head. K. turned around and asked his attackers if there was a problem.

Challenged to a fight, he declined and was then beaten with his friends by the group, joined by nine other people.
The beating stopped when other residents approached the area.
All three youths were wounded and filed a complaint at police headquarters. On Monday they started identifying their aggressors.

Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie said she was appalled by the “anti-Semitic attack on three Jewish adolescents on their way to the synagogue”, as did the mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe.

But Police investigators stressed they were not certain the assault was indeed anti-Semitic, arguing that "no anti-Jewish hate slogan was pronounced during the attack".
The press reported on the attack, saying it was a case of “suspected anti-Semitism”.

“There is no need for anti-Semitic slurs to identify the crime as anti-Semitic, just as there is no need for anti-Muslim slogans in order to define an assault on a veiled woman as a hate crime,” Sammy Ghozlan of the Vigilance Bureau against anti-Semitism told me. “The police are just trying to quiet things down to avoid a greater flare-up.”

The Jewish umbrella organisation CRIF agreed the assault was “obviously anti-Semitic”, and the Jewish student organisation UEJF pointed out that the three victims were serious quiet students, who had no prior experience of violence.

UEJF was referring to the case of Rudy Haddad, the boy beaten to a coma in June, who had participated in a previous street fight between Jewish and multi-racial gangs. Because of his past experience, Rudy’s attack was considered by many as a simple street battle and not a hate crime.

However they might be defined, racial hatred and increasing violence have exasperated residents of the neighbourhood. They feel the city is not doing anything to solve the problem, and many parents ask their children to stay at home to avoid trouble.

French Cartoonist triggers national controversy with antisemitic jibe about Sarkozy's son

Nicolas Sarkozy’s son Jean is at the center of a national controversy after he was attacked by a satirist for allegedly planning to convert to Judaism.

In his article, cartoonist Siné mocked the precautious political agenda of Jean Sarkozy, who’s an elected official at 21 and implied the young man decided to wed a Jew and convert to Judaism in order to push forward his career.

“Jean Sarkozy, the natural son of his father and already councillor within his party, who was discharged at court in a hit and run accident with his motorbike. [...] Well, one must stress that the plaintiff was an Arab! And that’s not all: he just announced that he will convert to Judaism before marrying his fiancée, a Jew, and heiress of the founders of the Darty stores. This boy has some future!” wrote Siné on the July 9 issue of Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper, which had not been reviewed by the newsroom.

The affair could have gone unnoticed but journalist Claude Askolovitch denounced it as anti-Semitic and the newspaper’s manager Philippe Val agreed and requested an official printed excuse from the satirist. But the latter refused.

“Saying I’m sorry to Sarkozy and Darty? I might as well cut off my balls,” he replied, before being fired by Val.
The cartoonist got support from various public figures who argued he had the right to express himself. 3.000 people signed the petition in favour of Siné. They say the manager has double standards, because Charlie Hebdo’s satirical attitude is renowned. The newspaper had published the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad and was sued for doing so by various Muslim associations. Philippe Val pleaded for hours in court in favour of the controversial drawings.

But Val says “criticizing religion, any religion, is not the same as criticizing someone for what they are.” “That is an unspoken rule at Charlie Hebdo” he wrote in a column a week after the controversy broke out. He added that Sarkozy’s conversion to Judaism was a mere rumour.

French news papers are divided on the issue but most of them criticize Siné and point out that he had, in the past, been condemned for anti-Semitic remarks.

Those who defend the cartoonist say that he was fired for his far-left, pro-Palestinian political views and that his latest article was merely an excuse. They accuse Val of harassing his employees and defending pro-Israeli positions.

The Jewish umbrella group CRIF issued a press release in support of Val saying the controversy had turned into a hate campaign against the editor. Intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy wrote that people are focusing on Val’s decision to fire the cartoonist instead of trying to understand why Siné’s remarks were anti-Semitic.