Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Sunday, 9 May 2010
J Call: Europe's first left-wing lobby is kicking, but is it alive?
A new European group modelling itself on J Street, the left-leaning American Israel lobby, was launched at the European Parliament on Monday.
Hundreds of supporters of J Call, including MEPS and two former Israeli envoys, presented a petition asking Israel to stop its settlement activity and calling on Europe to intervene.
Headed "a European Jewish Call for Reason" and partially written by former Israeli envoy to France Elie Barnavi, the online petition has been signed by more than 4,700 people.
It asks the EU to put pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to make "the necessary moves to establish peace" and calls on Israel to stop building in the West Bank and in "the Arab districts of east Jerusalem". Leaders say they will also demand that Palestinians renounce the right of return.
"Some say our initiative hurts Israel, but it's the exact opposite: we aim to save Israel from disaster," said founder David Chemla, head of the French branch of Peace Now. "Israel cannot remain a democratic Jewish state if it keeps occupying the West Bank."
But he was unable to explain what kind of measures it wants the EU to take against Israel, adding: "We're obviously pro-Israeli and are opposed to any kind of boycott."
While MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit told the crowd, to loud applause, that "the Zionist dream is not my dream", others, including philosophers Bernard Henri Levy and Alain Finkielkraut, are known for their unwavering support for Israel. Their involvement triggered a backlash from French umbrella group CRIF, whose leader Richard Prasquier accused J Call of endangering Israel and helping its enemies.
An online counter-petition gathered more signatures than the original. But Mr Levy brushed the accusations aside.
"Debate and differences of opinion make us stronger, not weaker. It's absurd to think Zionists shouldn't express themselves," he said.
And several signatories, including Mr Barnavi, disagreed that an impartial call was necessary.
"It's a call from diaspora Jews to Israel. It would be ridiculous to balance every single statement," he said.
Signatories also rejected claims that they were attempting to override the will of Israeli voters, with former ambassador to Germany Avi Primor arguing that J Call does not stop the Israeli government from implementing its policies.
It remains unclear whether such an appeal can get significant support in Europe and whether J Call - currently only a petition - can be transformed into an effective political tool.
There is at least one British signatory - Engage's David Hirsch - but sources say that British groups which were approached declined to join until it was clear whether J Call was well received and its goals were clarified. Mr Chemla is visiting London next week to meet potential signatories.
Friday, 2 April 2010
French Jews 'unfazed' by National Front gains
The far-right National Front made a surprise comeback in the French regional elections on Sunday, but the Jewish community remains largely unperturbed.
The National Front gained its best result in years, getting an average of 17.8 per cent of the vote in 12 French regions. Eighty-two-year old party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen obtained the highest share of the vote, 22.8 per cent, in the southern region of Provence, Alpes, Cote d'Azure.
The party's success was unexpected as it has been losing ground for years, particularly since Nicolas Sarkozy ran for president in 2007. But voters are now turning back to the far right.
Still, the head of France's Jewish umbrella group CRIF said the party's results do not prove the French are increasingly antisemitic.
"I've always protested against Le Pen's controversial declarations, his insulting remarks on the Holocaust, and he hasn't gotten any wiser through the years, but this does not mean his voters share his views," said Dr Richard Prasquier. "They're just extremely frustrated with the economic crisis and their vote is a form of protest.
"However I do feel that the fact that they found no other way to express their dismay is a bad sign for our democracy."
Since Mr Sarkozy was elected president, the National Front has been beset by internal rivalries and financial woes. It spent millions on campaigning and even had to put its headquarters on auction to settle its debts, but no one would buy them due to the party's negative image. Meanwhile, the party has been struggling to find a successor to its aging founder and several leaders have left the movement
The debate over who would take over after Le Pen retires seems resolved now, in favour of Jean-Marie's daughter Marine, currently the party's vice president. The 42-year old has positioned herself as the probable successor and while several party officials have criticised a succession within the Le Pen family, her impressive 22 per cent share of the vote in the regional election in the north brings her new legitimacy.
Over the past decade, Marine Le Pen has tried to change the party's image, abandoning her father's controversial style and revisionist remarks about the Holocaust. She tried to join a parliamentary trip to Israel and to approach Jewish media. But observers say she is still advocating the same policies as her father.
"She may be more polite, but her programme remains unchanged: favouring people of French descent, getting people of foreign descent to leave the country," said political scientist and far-right expert Jean-Yves Camus.
When running for president, Mr Sarkozy vowed to strip the National Front of its voters with promises of greater security in France and limited immigration. But his policies appeared to have fallen short, and now Mr Le Pen's old voters are returning to their old party.
"This is an obvious defeat for Mr Sarkozy," said Jean-Marie Le Pen after the election.
And his daughter Marine said the party will now prepare for the presidential election due in two years.
"The National movement is now a major player," she said, "a major player in the next major national election - the presidential election."
Thursday, 4 February 2010
CRIF, now officially a right wing lobby?
*
An odd controversy was at the heart of Wednesday's annual dinner of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF). The organisation’s leader, Richard Prasquier, sought to explain why he had defended a man who had aimed a comment described by some as anti-Semitic at former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.
Georges Freche, a long-time president of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France and a former member of the Socialist Party, caused a stir last month when he said one shouldn’t vote for Fabius because “he didn’t look Catholic”. Since Fabius is of Jewish descent, the remark was deemed by many to be anti-Semitic.
Fabius was offended and the Socialist Party was shocked; but Freche revealed that he got a letter of support from none other than the leader of France’s Jewish umbrella group.
Prasquier said Freche was not anti-Semitic, even though he considered his latest remark to be intolerable. Freche, who was expelled from the Socialist Party in 2007, is not new to allegations of racism. He once made waves by claiming there were too many black players in France’s national football team.
Observers say Prasquier defended Freche because of his past support for Israel. Defending the Jewish state is one of the CRIF’s main aims, as Prasquier repeated in his speech on Wednesday.
The CRIF is generally considered to be more traditional and conservative than Jewish organisations in other countries. But many say it has recently veered further to the right, while its defence of Israel has become more uncompromising than ever.
In the recent election of the CRIF’s executive committee, right-wing candidates gained significant ground. One of the winners was Gilles-William Goldnadel, a lawyer who defended journalist Oriana Fallaci when she was attacked for writing in The Rage and The Pride that Muslims “multiplied like rats” among other comments. But Goldnadel has also defended young Jews who tried to destroy anti-semitic manuals in book stores, and victims of anti-Semitic attacks. That might be one reason for his success.
Meanwhile, Socialist Party member and prominent anti-racism activist Patrick Klugman failed to make the cut. But contrary to media reports they can’t be deemed leftists regarding the
“Yes, we succeeded, that’s democracy,” Goldnadel told FRANCE 24. “The irony is that many Socialists voted for me too. People voted for us because they felt we would defend Israel better and fight against anti-Semitism in France.”
Goldnadel says the left failed to recognise the changed nature of anti-Semitism, and therefore failed to come up with an adequate response. “[The Socialists] failed to recognise it because they didn’t want to see it. Because it came from a new place they wanted to ignore,” he said, referring to claims of growing anti-Semitism among French Muslims.
In his speech, Richard Prasquier said anti-Semitic assaults had doubled in 2009, and most of the increase had taken place in impoverished suburbs. “People who live in wealthy neighbourhoods have little chance of knowing this,” he said.
CRIF figures show a spate of attacks in France mainly in January 2009, during the Israeli operations in Gaza. At that time, the Jewish organisation sought to demonstrate its support for Israel, but its marches were dwarfed by numerous rallies against the Israeli bombings on Hamas.
The Communist and Green parties, who had called for a boycott of Israeli products during the Gaza War, were excluded from Wednesday’s event by the CRIF.
Asked whether he felt lonely at the gathering, former Communist Party leader Robert Hue told FRANCE 24 “he would always come to this event”, adding that the shift to the right was “a reality not only within the Jewish community but also among the French population in general.”
For French writer Marek Halter, the shift to the right marks a loss of hope for a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “It’s just like in the Middle East itself. The left in Israel is weaker because of the circumstances. Peace seams unattainable. So pro-peace parties fail to gather support. But everything can turn around with a little spark of hope.”
At the dinner, the CRIF appeared at times more right-wing than the conservative politicians who were present. Christine Boutin, a former minister and a staunch conservative, even told FRANCE 24 she was “concerned about the CRIF moving too far to the right”.
But, as he wrapped up his speech, Prasquier dismissed such fears. “We’re not right or left-wing,” he told the audience. “We’re Jews, Republicans, French – and proud to be so."
Friday, 4 September 2009
Burkini 1, Mikveh 0
Muslim lobbying for religious rights in France has had a certain impact on Jews, who feel that their own, similar requests are being brushed away.
“Things have got worse since more and more Muslims started pushing demands, sometimes with political motives. Now we’re compared to assertive pushy militants and our own requests are denied outright,” said Marc Djebali, vice president of the Jewish community of Sarcelles, a suburb north of Paris. “Now officials tell m
e: ‘we can’t accept this, this is a secular state’.”
Sarcelles is the home of one of France’s largest and more assertive Jewish communities. In a way it pioneered the controversial trend of French minorities lobbying the secular government for religious rights, known as communautarisme — community activism.
But over the past few years it has been lagging behind the local Muslim community, which has been better able to get its traditions recognised in schools and work places.
“Ten years ago, kosher meals were offered to kids in our neighbourhood school. Today, they can only get halal,” said Mr Djebali. “Principals tell me halal is normal, "natural" even, but kosher is just too comlicated"
"Numbers, it's all about the numbers. The Muslims are not a small minority like us. Their requests are examined seriously," says Djebali.
The feeling that the community was being put at a disadvantage by the Muslim requests became stronger this summer, after comments by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy sparked a public debate over whether the Muslim burka should be banned. Calls to similarly examine Jewish clothing soon followed.
“Jewish men who wear hats and ringlets are just like Muslim women with their burka. They’re proselytising,” said Yves Pras, head of the Europe Secularity organisation. “Maybe this clothing should be banned from all public places, like smoking.”
Although France defines itself as secular and in 2004 its parliament adopted a law banning religious clothing — such as veils and skullcaps — in public schools, Islam has made its way into French tradition and society.
Dozens of schools are now offering halal meals; one school in Paris even offers halal meals exclusively. Meanwhile, a number of pools have arranged separated bathing hours for women, a trend which began in the Jewish community of Strasbourg, and later in Sarcelles, where, for the past 15 years, women have also had a female lifeguard.
In university, students still have to attend exams on Saturdays and holidays. This is a regular sticking point and every year France’s chief rabbi tries to negotiate with universities to find suitable dates.
Muslim holidays are increasingly respected in the office, according to a study by the professional association IMS-Entreprendre.
Ramadan is the first non-Christian holiday to be officially recognised in French companies. Many offices have adjusted their schedules in the afternoons to accommodate tired fasters, and others have set up prayer rooms where fasters can rest. Carmaker Renault was one of the first to reorganise its timetable for Muslim employees.
But IMS-Entreprendre considers other demands, such as leaving early on Friday night, “excessive”.
“Everything depends on the number of people pushing for change,” Dounia Bouzar, the author of What’s Allah’s place at the office?, told the AFP. “If 80 per cent of a company’s employees are Muslim, they’ll be making the rules.”
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Halimi kidnappers to be re-tried
The case of the self-proclaimed “Gang of Barbarians” is aparently not over. After a two-month long trial behind closed doors, the jury gave on Friday its verdict for the 27 people accused of the abduction and death of Ilan Halimi. The sentences ranged from six months to life imprisonment for the gang’s leader Youssouf Fofana who admitted killing Halimi.
But the victim’s family and Jewish community criticized the verdict, saying Fofana’s accomplices got off easy, and France’s Justice Minister Michele Alliot Marie asked the prosecution to appeal the verdict regarding 14 of the accused who got lighter sentences than the ones the prosecution had requested.
(AFP picture)The appeal was filed on Monday.Halimi’s family is now hoping the new trial will be open to the public.
“The trial was a missed opportunity. It should have explored the facts, the construction of (anti-Semitic) stereotypes and the mechanism that lead to this abduction, torture and killing of this young man,” Richard Prasquier, the head of the Jewish umbrella group CRIF told me. “I was shocked by some of the sentences because they were not strong enough, not to the dimension of what had happened. The trial shouldn’t just be Fofana’s trial. His accomplices were part of it all. Any one of them could have put an end to this ordeal at any moment.”
“The accomplices helped the killer massacre Ilan. They participated actively,” Halimi’s mother Ruth said after the verdict. “What they did is terrible. They killed Ilan because he was Jewish. But the verdict is by no means exceptional.”
Meanwhile, Defense lawyers said many of the accused had no link or knowledge of Halimi’s murder.
“They were judged for their deeds and not to set an example,” said Me Seban.
Three years ago, Youssouf Fofana organized Ilan Halimi’s kidnapping, hoping to get a ransom. The leader of the self-proclaimed ‘Gang of Barbarians’ wanted to get a Jew, any Jew, because he thought “they were rich” and would have the money to pay a ransom.
Fofana went to a street with several kosher restaurants and Jewish-owned businesses to find targets. He spotted the stored that were closed on a Jewish holiday and sent the following days several young women to seduce potential victims.
Ilan Halimi was filling in for a friend at a mobile phone shop that day, when Iranian-born Emma entered the store. Ilan asked her out on a date, and she invited him over to her home in a suburb to the south of Paris. He accepted, but when they get there, Halimi was attacked by several men who pushed him into the trunk of a car.
He was then taken to an apartment in the suburb of Bagneux and later to the sordid basement with the help of the building’s guard who gave the gang a set of keys for some money.
For 24 days Fofana tried to negotiate a deal with Ilan’s parents. But the Halimis followed police orders and refused to pay.
As Ilan’s father kept refusing Fofana’s deals, the gang of Barbarians got wilder and wilder. Several members kept beating up Halimi, and a guard even burned Ilan’s forehead with a cigarette while calling him “dirty Jew”.
Fofana eventually realized his plan had failed and decided to get rid of Halimi. The gang stripped Halimi of his clothes and drove him to another suburb, Sainte Genevieve des Bois. Fofana stabbed Halimi several times, spread petrol on his body and torched his victim. Halimi was then abandoned. He was still alive and tried to get help, but succombed when rescuers tried to get him to the hospital.
The court considered that only two of the accused had anti-Semitic motives, Fofana and one of the guards who burned Ilan’s forehead with a cigarette.
Fofana’s main accomplices who guarded the basement and tortured Halimi got 15 to 18 years and the woman who trapped him was sentenced to 9 years and could be freed in two years.
As the ruling came in on Friday night, some of the accused’s friends and families were in court and smiled at them. They cheered as some of their friends’ short sentences were pronounced. Fofana applauded the ruling.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Unraveling deceitful Judeo-Muslim dialogue
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 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.
