DOCSLIB.ORG

France's Action Against Anti6semitism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
France's Action Against Anti6semitism FRANCE’S FIGHT AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM March 2007 France deploys a global strategy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism, including prevention, repression (“zero tolerance policy”), and international actions. After a significant decrease of anti-Semitic acts in 2005 (-47%), France experienced in 2006 the horrific murder of Ilan Halimi and a rebound of anti-Semitic acts with 371 acts (+24%). In spite of this setback, the number of acts remains below the level reached in 2004. French authorities remain fully mobilized to fight against anti-Semitism. On the domestic front, preventive measures have been implemented since 2002 and tougher penalties mandated. At the international level, major efforts have been made to increase awareness of this serious problem among our partners in a variety of different arenas. These initiatives reflect France’s vigilance and determination to fight this terrible scourge. 1. French authorities remain fully mobilized to prevent and penalize anti- Semitic offenses: ¾ French legislation to combat anti-Semitic acts is some of the toughest worldwide. The “Lellouche Act” of 2003 imposes tougher penalties for racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic offenses. It introduces the aggravating circumstance of racism or anti-Semitism for certain offenses, which has the effect of toughening the penalty and can even increase the severity of the charge. Another law passed in 2004 expands the list of offenses to which the aggravating circumstance of racism or anti-Semitism can be added, and it extends the deadline for filing a complaint from three months to one year. A law passed in July 2004 on electronic and audiovisual communications strengthened existing means to fight racism and anti-Semitism in the media. It enabled the president of the CSA [the French communications regulator] to ban the Lebanon-based TV channel Al Manar, which had broadcast anti-Semitic programs, and refer it to France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State. On December 13, 2004, the Council of State ordered Eutelsat to stop transmitting Al Manar in France. ¾ These measures have been fully and forcefully implemented. Penalties for anti-Semitic offenses have been increased. Tough prison sentences have been handed down, including crimes where property was damaged. Special prosecutors have been appointed to handle cases involving racism and anti-Semitism. Most recently, the leader of the anti-Semitic “Tribu Ka” gang has been sentenced to prison. And the leader of the gang responsible for Ilan’s murder has been arrested in Ivory Coast and is awaiting trial in prison. ¾ High level monitoring in close coordination with the Jewish community. An Interministerial Committee to fight Racism and Anti-Semitism, chaired by the French Prime Minister, was established in November 2003, to monitor the situation. The Ministry of the Interior is also working in close cooperation with the CRIF, the umbrella body representing the organized Jewish community in France, and 1 additional measures have been taken for the protection of sensitive sites. 1,200 officers, plus local police and gendarmerie forces, are assigned exclusively to ensure the security of the Jewish community’s religious and cultural premises. ¾ Keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. A long-term approach is being taken in French schools to teach tolerance and educate students about the dangers of anti-Semitism. There is now an annual day devoted to remembrance of the Shoah in schools. School visits are organized to the places of remembrance. And French authorities are very much involved. Most recently, at a ceremony to honor the 3000 French citizens recognized as Righteous among the nations, President Chirac called Holocaust denial a “crime against truth” and “an absolute perversion of the soul and the spirit.” 2. At the international level, France has been extensively engaged to increase public awareness of the resurgence of anti-Semitism, emphasizing the need to develop action plans to deal with it: ¾ Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). France took an active part in the Berlin conference on anti-Semitism in April 2004. This was followed by a special conference in Paris in June 2004 to consider the spread of racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic propaganda over the Internet. At the 2004 OSCE ministerial conference, France supported the appointment of three representatives tasked with addressing questions of tolerance, including anti- Semitism. France sent a high-level delegation and participated actively in the June 2005 conference in Cordoba, which continued to focus the OSCE’s attention on issues related to anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance. France recognizes the specificity of anti-Semitism in regard to other forms of racism. ¾ European Union. An EU working group has been set up, consisting of representatives of the EU Commission, the European Jewish Congress and the Conference of European Rabbis. Several actions are being taken, including regular meetings of Education and Homeland Affairs Ministers and the transformation of the Vienna Observatory of Racist and Xenophobic Phenomena into an actual human rights agency. Previously, the European Council decided to step up the fight against anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia as part of its multi-year Justice/Homeland Affairs program. ¾ United Nations. France actively supported the special session of the UN General Assembly in January 2005 to commemorate the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. France supports the principle of greater engagement on anti-Semitism, and has asked that the resolution on religious intolerance, traditionally presented by the European Union, include unequivocal references to anti-Semitism. France also co- sponsored and contributed to the adoption by the last UN General Assembly of a Holocaust remembrance resolution, which was initiated by Israel. This resolution points out the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, puts an education program in place, and designates the 27th of January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, as an annual international day of commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust./. 2.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • How Islamism Tainted France's Presidential Election
    DATELINE How Islamism Tainted France’s Presidential Election by Nidra Poller What is Europe going to do about Islam? Submit? Resist? Or just wait it out, dimwittedly? The recent French presidential election offers insight into the way Islam, or more exactly the Islamist factor, may eventually play out in European politics. Despite attempts by the Left to focus the debate on the economic crisis, Islam played a decisive role in the contest. The Socialist candidate, whose platform was tilted to favor the party’s Muslim clientele, could not have won without total support in the second round of voting from far Left parties marked by zealous anti-Zionism and a full range of anti-Western ideologies. The question of Islam-in-France was raised with un- precedented candor by incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy of the Movement for a Popular Majority (UMP). For the first time in France, a major party clearly advocated a push back against Islam (qualified of course with the adjective “radical”). This strategy fired up the enthusiasm of the base, mobilized voters, brought tens of thousands to party rallies, and led to a daily increase in Sarkozy’s polling figures. It would be fair to estimate that if he had had one more week to campaign he might have defeated Hollande during the second-round vote on May 6, 2012. But his momentum had already been slowed by Marine Le Pen, candidate of a refur- bished Front National. During the first-round campaign of April 9-22, the media kept its spotlight on her in a replay of the strategy used by the last Socialist president, François Mitterrand, who deployed them to exaggerate her father Jean-Marie Le Pen’s importance and weaken the conservative opposition.
    [Show full text]
  • Million Dollar Dinner Lives up to Its Name
    Published by the Jewish Community of Louisville, Inc. DECEMBER 26, 2014 4 TEVET 5775www.jewishlouisville.org Community 1 INSIDE Jewish Film Festival is larger than ever and a special look back a the history Broadway PAGE 5 Communit■ ■ y FRIDAY VOL. 40, NO. 04 4 tevet 5775 deceMber 26, 2014 Million Dollar Dinner Lives Up to its Name By Phyllis Shaikun The Jewish Federation of Louisville’s Million Dollar Dinner on Saturday, De- cember 13, at the Standard Club, lived up to its name and attracted a festive crowd of more than 200 to celebrate the community successfully raising over that sum during the Week of Giving ef- fort held December 7-13. The gala was a thank you to donors and to volunteers who worked tirelessly, along with 2015 Campaign Chair Doug Gordon and Co- chair Ariel Kronenberg, to ensure the million-dollar mark would be reached by the night of the dinner. Gordon emceed the proceedings and began the evening’s formal program by thanking the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence for the use of the Standard Club and to Heaven Hill Distilleries for contributing the alcohol for the evening. Gordon then recognized past presi- dents and chairs from the Jewish Com- munity Center, Jewish Community Federation and Jewish Community of Louisville who provided inspiration and leadership that set the path and brought us to this point. He shared highlights of their collective accomplishments, which A group of past and present CenterStage performers entertained the audience at the tenth annual Light Up CenterStage on December 6. The event finished off Center- see MILLION DOLLAR page 16 Stage’s portion of the Meet the Challenge campaign, meaning the theate will get new chairs and a curtain.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Aaron Kenedy / the New Anti-Semitism and Diasporic 8 Liminality: Jewish Identity from France to Montreal
    Robert Aaron Kenedy / The New Anti-Semitism and Diasporic 8 Liminality: Jewish Identity from France to Montreal Robert Aaron Kenedy The New Anti-Semitism and Diasporic Liminality: Jewish Identity from France to Montreal Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 25, 2017 9 Through a case study approach, 40 French Jews were interviewed revealing their primary reason for leaving France and resettling in Montreal was the continuous threat associated with the new anti-Semitism. The focus for many who participated in this research was the anti-Jewish sentiment in France and the result of being in a liminal diasporic state of feeling as though they belong elsewhere, possibly in France, to where they want to return, or moving on to other destinations. Multiple centred Jewish and Francophone identities were themes that emerged throughout the interviews. There have been few accounts of the post-1999 French Jewish diaspora and reset- tlement in Canada. There are some scholarly works in the literature, though apart from journalistic reports, there is little information about this diaspora.1 Carol Off’s (2005) CBC documentary entitled One is too Many: Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Eu- rope highlights the new anti-Semitism in France and the outcome of Jews leaving for Canada. The documentary also considers why a very successful segment of Jews would want to leave France, a country in which they have felt relatively secure since the end of the Second World War. This documentary and media reports of French Jews leaving France for destinations such as Canada provided the inspiration for beginning an in-depth case study to investigate why Jews left France and decided to settle in Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Talking About Antisemitism in France Before and After Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher
    Jewish History (2018) 32: 77–97 © Springer Nature B.V. 2018 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10835-018-9304-6 Talking about Antisemitism in France Before and After Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher KIMBERLY A. ARKIN Boston University, Boston, MA, USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This article explores tensions in French Jewish discourses about antisemitism in the post-2000 period. Drawing on commentary from French Jewish intellectuals, national Jew- ish organizations, and the French Jewish press from the mid-2000s until after the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks, I note a complex relationship between change and continu- ity in discursive characterizations of French antisemitism. While empirical manifestations of antisemitism were notably transformed by the Toulouse attacks of 2012, much French Jew- ish discourse insisted on continuity from the early 2000s onward. At the same time, Jewish narrative practices shifted rather dramatically. In a political context where Israel was often de- picted as part of a history of violent settler colonialism, early 2000s Jewish discourse divorced French antisemitism from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and (post)colonial racism in France. After 2012, some Jewish commentators linked Israel to French antisemitism by likening ter- rorism in Israel with Islamic antisemitism in France. These disjunctures between narratives and empirical violence suggest that the “structures of feeling” behind Jewish reactions to con- temporary antisemitism cannot be reduced to empirical questions about safety and security. Social scientists thus need to move beyond an empirical analysis of antisemitism itself and attend to the cultural and affective work Jewish discourses about antisemitism do in any par- ticular moment.
    [Show full text]
  • Ladies and Gentlemen, First of All, Welcome
    ANTI-SEMITISM AND MULTICULTURALISM: THE UNEASY CONNECTION* Robert Wistrich Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, welcome. Bienvenu, willkommen, bruchim habayim. I could go on, this is a multiculturalist conference. It’s also a polyglot conference and I think that in the course of the coming days many of the points that I can only sketch here tonight will be amplified, clarified and I hope will lead to a new understanding of the problem that we will be dealing with. There is a large literature on multiculturalism. There is a vast literature on anti- Semitism. There’s a significant body of writings on ethnic identity. What I think has been lacking is an attempt to try and put these constituent elements together and to see how they interconnect. To that extent I believe that we are entering uncharted waters, and perhaps this conference will succeed in throwing a bridge across those waters and lead us, like the Israelites of old, to dry land. Now to my theme. Let me begin with a quote from an interview in 1991 by Sir Isaiah Berlin on the ingathering storm of ethnic nationalism. His remarks were made at a truly historic moment as the USSR definitively unravelled, rent asunder by resurgent nationalist republics. Ethnic warfare also began to rage in Yugoslavia, which would lead to the demise of that multinational state within a decade.1 Sir Isaiah, despite his awareness of the bitter nationalist conflicts that were unfolding rejoiced at the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and watching the Soviet Tower of Babel collapse in ruins.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Antisemitism SPRING 2021– MWF 11:50 Am – 1 Pm 331 Old Main
    HIST 375: Global Antisemitism SPRING 2021– MWF 11:50 am – 1 pm 331 Old Main Course Description Eli Wiesel , Holocaust survivor, Nobel peace Dr. Sonja Wentling laureate, and lifelong advocate for human [email protected] rights, famously declared that “hatred 324 Old Main might begin with the Jews, but it never ends with Jews.” Wiesel’s statement 218-299-3521 highlights both the urgency to study and OFFICE HOURS: expose the scourge of Jew-hatred, Judeophobia, Anti-Judaism, and W 1-2 pm antisemitism, and the need to combat the T, TH 11am-12:30pm longest hatred as instrumental in the fight against prejudice, bigotry, racism, and And by appointment injustice. Once considered marginal in the United States, political movements and individuals espousing antisemitism have moved into the headlines in recent years. According to data released by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), Jewish communities are experiencing near historic levels of antisemitism. Across the six-state Midwest Region alone (Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) 2016-2018 saw a 110% increase in anti- Semitic incidents – a disturbing trend that is reflected in a resurgence of antisemitism nationally and globally. Attempts by policy-makers and activists to identify and combat antisemitism, whether in the streets, across social media spaces, or on college campuses, are often hampered by a lack of knowledge about the history of the phenomenon. On the other hand, academic scholarship by historians sometimes suffers from a lack of attention to its contemporary manifestations. This course therefore aims to build a rigorous conception of antisemitism as a set of strangely persistent ideas across time and space and equip students with the tools to expose and confront the longest hatred in its contemporary manifestations.
    [Show full text]
  • Antisemitism in France
    Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive Jewish Community Security Service ! 2014 Report on Antisemitism in France Source of statistical data : Ministry of Interior and SPCJ" www.antisemitisme.fr This report can be downloaded in French, English and Hebrew at www.antisemitisme.fr This report was written with the support of# the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (FMS) ! " The 2014 report on# Antisemitism in France# is dedicated to the memory# of the victims of the terror# attacks on January 7, 8,# and 9, 2015. ! Victims of the attacks committed on 7 January 2015 in Paris # in the Charlie Hebdo newsroom Frédéric Boisseau ; Franck Brinsolaro ; Jean Cabut, aka Cabu ; Elsa Cayat ; Stéphane Charbonnier, aka Charb ; Philippe Honoré, aka Honoré ; Bernard Maris ; Ahmed Merabet ; Mustapha Ourrad ; Michel Renaud ; Bernard Verlhac, aka Tignous ; Georges Wolinski ! Victim of the attack committed on 8 January 2015# in Montrouge (92) Clarissa Jean-Philippe ! Victims of the attack committed on 9 January 2015# in the kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes Philippe Braham ; Yohan Cohen ; Yoav Hattab ; François-Michel Saada REPORT ON ANTISEMITISM# IN FRANCE IN 2014" ANTISEMITISM IN FRANCE IN 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents 7 SPCJ 9 Eric de Rothschild, SPCJ President 11 Our methodology 13 1. Assessment and analyses 15 1.1 Assessment and analyses 17 1.2 Recap chart of Antisemitic acts recorded in 2014 19 1.3 Antisemitism In France in 2014 21 1.4 Antisemitic acts recorded in France from 1998 to 2014 27 1.5 Racism and antisemitism in 2014 31 1.6 Geographic breakdown of antisemitic acts in 2014 37 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Talking About Anti-Semitism in France Before and After Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Boston University Institutional Repository (OpenBU) Boston University OpenBU http://open.bu.edu BU Open Access Articles BU Open Access Articles Talking about Anti-Semitism in France before and after Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher This work was made openly accessible by BU Faculty. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Version Citation (published version): K Arkin. "Talking about Anti-Semitism in France Before and After Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher." Jewish History, https://hdl.handle.net/2144/26701 Boston University Talking about Anti-Semitism in France Before and After Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher By Kimberly A. Arkin When I did ethnographic research with young, predominantly North African-origin Parisian Jews in the mid-2000s, I found something that few historians or social scientists were expecting. In contrast to previous generations of French Jews, many of the young people I got to know saw Frenchness and Jewishness as mutually exclusive categories of belonging. In fact, calling someone français [French] in certain French Jewish milieu had replaced the use of the word goy, suggesting that Frenchness increasingly indexed an ethno-religious as well as national content for young Jews. As I show in my book Rhinestones, Religion and the Republic: Fashioning Jewishness in France,1 this sense that Frenchness and Jewishness were no longer cumulative identities had quite a bit to do with the way some French Jews—most particularly those from North Africa, rather than longer established Ashkenazim—experienced and understood rising French anti-Semitism, French politics vis-à-vis Israel, and their own diasporic Israeli identities.
    [Show full text]
  • Addressing Bias-Motivated Youth Violence: Recommendations for Osce and Participating States, and Model Practices
    HDIM.NGO/567/06 12 October 2006 ADDRESSING BIAS-MOTIVATED YOUTH VIOLENCE: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OSCE AND PARTICIPATING STATES, AND MODEL PRACTICES STATEMENT BY GARY M. BRETTON-GRANATOOR DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE WORKING SESSION 17 11TH OSCE HUMAN DIMENSION IMPLEMENTATION MEETING OCTOBER 12, 2006 WARSAW, POLAND 1 Mr. Moderator, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentleman, The ODIHR today unveiled a report on hate crime which documents that hate crime is a worrying fact of everyday life in the OSCE region, even where robust laws are in place to punish perpetrators. Young people are increasingly represented among both victims and perpetrators, which makes it especially clear that, by the time one of these laws is used, our society has already failed these young people. My focus today is on steps we can take to prevent those failures in the first place and to institute policies and programs to help raise a new generation that will embrace diversity as a strength. Survey of Anti-Semitism Anti-Semitism is a major concern for the Anti-Defamation League -- not just because we are a Jewish community organization, but because anti-Semitism, the longest and most persistent form of prejudice, threatens security and democracy, and poisons the health of a society as a whole. The Anti-Defamation League was established in 1913 with its core mission to combat the then horrific discrimination against Jews in all facets of American life and the growth of anti-Jewish movements and organizations peddling their hate around the world. Over nearly a century, as part of the fight against anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, we have been at the forefront of the campaign to secure historic civil rights achievements, pioneered the development of model hate crime laws and developed anti-prejudice education models to address all forms of prejudice and to prepare the next generation to live in our increasingly diverse society.
    [Show full text]
  • REPORT on ANTISEMITISM France 2019
    REPORT ON ANTISEMITISM France 2019 Summary Demographic situation Definition of anti-Semitism Definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Bill against anti-Semitism in the French Parliament The figures of anti-Semitism in France Major anti-Semitics Incidents Who are the anti-Semitics in France Re-emergence of traditional antisemitism 2014: words not heard since the Second World War Surveys in 2015 and 2016 Fundamentalist Catholics The far right The far left Muslims Antisemitic Elements among Yellow Vests Movement 117, rue de Charenton 75012 Paris – France - contact : [email protected] www.coordiap.com Conspiracy How to fight against anti-Semitism First battle: the legal arsenal Second battle: Internet Third battle: school Fourth battle is in the mosques Fifth battle is in prisons Sixth battle fighting the import of the Israel-Palestine conflict The feeling of Jews of France Some ways to eradicate anti-Semitism On the coexistence of religions 117, rue de Charenton 75012 Paris – France - contact : [email protected] www.coordiap.com Demographic situation France has a population of nearly 67 million. A little over 5 million Muslims and about 500,000 Jews. As a result, France has the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Europe. Definition of anti-Semitism Definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Speaking out, condemning or fighting against anti-Semitism requires that this term be defined. While many books define this term, we have chosen the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, (IHRA) which is "Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards them. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.
    [Show full text]
  • “Progressive” Jewish Thought New Anti-Semitism
    “Progressive” Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism Alvin H. Rosenfeld AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE “Progressive” Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism Alvin H. Rosenfeld The American Jewish Committee protects the rights and freedoms of Jews the world over; combats bigotry and anti-Semitism and promotes human rights for all; works for the security of Israel and deepened under- standing between Americans and Israelis; advocates public policy positions rooted in American democratic values and the perspectives of the Jewish heritage; and enhances the creative vitality of the Jewish people. Founded in 1906, it is the pioneer human-relations agency in the United States. To learn more about our mission, programs, and publications, and to join and contribute to our efforts, please visit us at www.ajc.org or contact us by phone at 212-751-4000 or by e-mail at [email protected]. AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE Contents Alvin H. Rosenfeld is professor of English and Jewish Foreword v Studies and director of the Institute for Jewish Culture and the Arts, Indiana University. His most recent pub- “Progressive” Jewish Thought lication for the American Jewish Committee is Anti- and the New Anti-Semitism 1 Zionism in Great Britain and Beyond: A “Respectable” Anti-Semitism?, published in 2004. Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in the Muslim World 1 A Conflation of Interests: Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in Europe 4 What Is New in Today’s Anti-Semitism? 7 Questioning Israel’s Essence, Not Israeli Policies 8 A Jew among the Anti-Zionists: Jacqueline Rose 9 Copyright © 2006 American Jewish Committee All Rights Reserved December 2006 iii iv Contents Michael Neumann and the Accusation of Genocide with all Jews Complicit 13 Foreword Jewish Opposition to Zionism How can there be something “new” about something as old as anti- in Historical Perspective 14 Semitism? Hostility to Jews—because of their religious beliefs, their social or ethnic distinctiveness, or their imputed “racial” differ- ences—has been around for a long time.
    [Show full text]
  • Western Europe: France
    France National Affairs THE CPE CRisis The most remarkable series of events to occur in France during 2006 was a two-month-long struggle, marked by violence, over a pro- posed new employment law. The proposal, Contrat premiere embauche (CPE)—First Employment Contract—was the government's effort to address youth unemployment, a key problem that had led to massive ri- oting in heavily Arab and black African immigrant ghettos around France in October—November 2005 (see AJYB 2006, pp. 337—39). While the overall French unemployment rate was close to 10 percent, the figure was 23 percent for young people, and possibly double that for those of im- migrant origin. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin agreed with many economists that a major reason for high unemployment was that social-welfare laws were overly protective of workers' rights. Left-wing governments that ruled France off-and-on since 1936 had instituted legislation that effec- tively gave much of the French labor force either quasi-ensured contin- ual employment, or the guarantee of major financial compensation in case of dismissal. As a result, employers had become extremely wary of hiring people who had not proven their skills—principally inexperienced youths seeking to enter the workforce—or whom they were not sure they wanted to employ for long periods. While all sorts of temporary work contracts had been introduced in recent years to give employers more flex- ibility, unemployment remained stubbornly high. De Villepin's CPE made it easier to dismiss employees under age 26 dur- ing their first two years of employment by exempting their employers from the law requiring provable grounds for dismissal.
    [Show full text]