LETTER FROM FRANCE: BATTLE AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM ENTERS NEW PHASE WITH INCREASED LEGAL ACTION AND HARSHER PENALTIES
By Shirli Sitbon
The Jewish Journal of greater L.A, CA
2007-09-14
French Jews were relieved to learn of the arrest and conviction of
Nizar Ouedrani, a man who assaulted a young Jew wearing a kippah in
Paris last July, as the victim was walking toward a synagogue.
The incident is one among dozens, but for the first time, Jewish
leaders noted, the court opted for a severe sentence.
On Saturday, July 21, two men and a boy were going to their synagogue
on Petit Street when a man driving a truck honked at them and started
shouting anti-Semitic slurs. When 24-year-old Yossef Zekri tried to
calm the driver down, the latter jumped out of the car and started
hitting him while shouting, "Dirty Jew, I’ll finish you." Ouedrani
hit Zekri on the head with a vacuum cleaner and ran away. He was
caught the next day after police traced his license plate number.
In court, Ouedrani testified he didn’t realize his victim was a Jew,
but failed to convince the judge, who sentenced him to nine months
in prison (of which six months are suspended).
"We believe that this ruling, the first to be as severe as we expected,
is exemplary and will dissuade thugs from attacking our community,"
Sammy Ghozlan, the head of the Vigilance Bureau Against Anti-Semitism,
said.
With the Ouedrani case, the battle against "new" anti-Semitism has
entered a new phase.
Until 2002, the left-wing government led by Lionel Jospin refused
to even recognize the spectacular increase of anti-Jewish attacks
triggered by the second intifada.
Local Jewish organizations, strengthened by American Jewry, demanded
President Jacques Chirac present a firm battle against anti-Semitic
attacks.
The French president and his new center-right Interior Minister
Nicolas Sarkozy — now France’s president — launched a plan to
fight anti-Semitism, including reinforced surveillance of synagogues
and unprecedented efforts on behalf of police to hunt down the
attackers. The next phase was to get offenders to court. The French
Assembly approved the Lellouche legislation, doubling the sentences
for anti-Semitic and racist assaults.
Jewish community leaders fought forcefully for serious sentences
following dozens of symbolic rulings that failed to dissuade new
aggressors.
The Ouedrani ruling, the first severe court decision after an
anti-Semitic attack, opens the door to a new phase of the battle
against anti-Semitism. Authorities appear to have taken every possible
measure and precaution, yet anti-Jewish attacks continue as if nothing
had been done.
"There are no new ideas on how to fight anti-Semitism, no new plan in
the horizon," said policeman Michel Thooris, who follows anti-Semitism
issues. "French Jews voted massively for Sarkozy hoping that he
would put an end to hatred, but he has no new answers. It sometimes
seems as though hearing about anti-Semitism is starting to annoy our
leaders…" and the French in general, Thooris said.
Simone Veil — former minister, European Parliament speaker and current
president of the Shoah Remembrance Foundation — told me, as we were
visiting the Shoah memorial with President Sarkozy, that certain forms
of anti-Semitism denounced by schoolteachers could easily be countered.
Since the beginning of the second intifada, French professors in
troubled schools have complained that their Muslim pupils have
been refusing to learn about the Shoah, claiming it was Zionist
propaganda. The pupils have prevented professors from teaching
the Shoah and the trend has extended to other lessons that involve
Jews. Anti-Semitic assaults against Jewish pupils and teachers have
also increased.
"I actually noticed that Arab pupils failed to appear in class for
courses on the Shoah long before the second intifada, but at the time
I didn’t understand what motivated them," said Irene Saya, the head
of the teachers association PEREC (For a Republican and Civil School).
In 2002, a dozen professors gathered their testimonies in a book
called, "The Lost Territories of the Republic." Irene Saya said that
nothing has changed in five years.
"Jewish professors and pupils are subject to anti-Semitic remarks and
it feels like there isn’t much to do. Anti-Semitism isn’t just going
to disappear," Saya said. "The ministry created a special department
for these issues but there are no official figures and no real measures
to battle anti-Semitism in school."
"The way I see it, the pupils who refuse to study are not at fault,"
Veil said. "The teachers are the ones who should find solutions to
this problem and find ways to teach what happened in WWII. But I
think some of these professors don’t really want to make that effort."
Every year, the Shoah Memorial sends up to 10,000 adolescents from
throughout France to Auschwitz.
Troublemakers aren’t invited. It also launched several projects
commemorating the genocides perpetrated in Rwanda and against the
Armenians.
"Today, we have to talk about Rwanda if we want schools to keep on
teaching about the Shoah," sarcastically observed the leader of one
European Jewish organization.
Obviously, most of those who combat genocide and fight racism do so
genuinely, and their efforts often lead to positive results.
"We have to be irreproachable at a time when revisionists are still
trying to distort history," Veil said.
Anti-Zionism and the boycott of Israeli products and skills are
viewed by French Jews as another form of anti-Semitism. But, unlike
other countries, France has successfully countered the phenomenon,
launching the France-Israel Foundation in July 2005 to reinforce ties
with the Israeli government and encourage collaboration in various
fields, from literary exhibits to stem cell research.
The foundation has prevented boycotts that would have isolated Israel
in the intellectual and commercial fields. It instigated French
investments in the Israeli film industry, for example, leading to
the success of the Israeli Film Festival of Paris and to numerous
productions and prizes, the latest ones being the awards granted
at the Cannes film festival to two Israeli films, "Jellyfish" and
"The Band’s Visit."
Israeli movies, once rare in French theaters, have become common and,
at times, even popular.
Those who supported the boycott against Israel, mainly within the
pro-Palestinian association CAPJPO (Coordination of the Calls for
a Fair Peace in the Middle East), are about to observe a new high
in French-Israeli relations since the annual book fair — the major
cultural event of the year — selected Israel to star the 2008 exhibit.
Sarkozy is apparently looking for global answers, fighting boycotts
with reinforced collaboration and battling racist extremists by
offering new alternatives. In theory, every issue can fall into place.
Since recent anti-Semitic attacks are perpetrated mainly by young
Muslims, Sarkozy’s plan to annihilate anti-Semitism consists of putting
all his energy into solving the conflicts in the Middle East in order
to avoid new tensions between communities.
When inviting Hezbollah representatives to Paris in July, only a few
months after he compared them to Nazis, Sarkozy hoped to get things
moving, but assured the public he would not invite Hamas.
Sarkozy, a great admirer of George Bush, has multiple initiatives in
the Middle East.
The man, who a few months ago was criticized for his Jewish descent
by extremist leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, has already managed to reduce
the National Front Party to nothing, attracting most of its voters
and leaving it penniless after two major electoral defeats.
Maybe the French president’s plan to annihilate anti-Semitism isn’t
all that impossible. The Jewish community voted massively for that
plan. Now, it is holding its breath.
Paris-based journalist Shirli Sitbon’s "Letter From France" will
appear monthly in The Journal.