Comments (0)French Leaders Debate State of Anti-Semitism
November 28, 2008Paris
JTA Wire Service
Concerns that the global financial crisis will fuel anti-Semitism spurred The French Jewish Business Union to move up a discussion on anti-Semitism.
French political, religious and media leaders gathered Sunday for an often heated debate over the state of anti-Semitism in France more than two months before the event’s planned date.
“As in every crisis, we note a certain anti-Semitic reaction,” said Claude Barouch, the union’s president. “So we decided to move forward and create relationships between people in case of big problems connected to the [financial] crisis, and also what is happening in Iran.
“We’re trying to dialogue with Muslims and Christians to say we’re all in the same boat,” he added.
Round-table talks featured religious figures such as the country’s chief rabbi, Joseph Sitruk, and Imam Hassan Chalgoumi of Drancy, who has reached out to the Jewish community despite threats from Islamic extremists.
A discussion on the French media’s reporting on anti-Semitism included, among others, Edwy Plenel, the former editor in chief of the moderate left daily Le Monde. Many in the largely Jewish crowd heckled Plenel for appearing to excuse anti-Semitism as resulting entirely from social ills and for not reporting on resurgent anti-Jewish feelings in France in the first half of the 2000s, during the second Palestinian intifada.
Plenel acknowledged that many in the French media were wrong not to have reported on legitimate “fears” from France’s Jewish community.
Panelists agreed that the French media no longer “deny” the existence of a new form of French anti-Semitism stemming from the political far left and some pro-Palestinian radicals. However, they worried that politically correct forms of anti-Zionism mask Jewish hate in French society.
Prince Charles Marks Kindertransport Anniversary
Britain’s Prince Charles marked the 70th anniversary of the Kindertransport.
The prince told a Kindertransport reunion in London that he was proud that his paternal grandmother had sheltered Jewish refugees at the start of World War II, BBC News reported Sunday. Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, sheltered a Jewish family when she was living in Athens.
Some 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Europe entered Britain in 1938 during the rescue mission and thus were saved from death at the hands of the Nazis.
Vietnam Reportedly to Open Israeli Embassy
Vietnam has decided to open an embassy in Israel, an Israeli news Web site reported.
Ynet reported Monday that Foreign Ministry Director-General Aharon Abramovich learned of the plans during a recent visit to Vietnam.
Israel’s outgoing ambassador to Vietnam, Efi Ben Matityahu, has been working to establish a Vietnamese embassy in Israel. Israel has had an embassy in Hanoi since the mid-1990s.
Israeli Company Will Secure Vatican
An Israeli company has won a contract to secure Vatican City, an Israeli newspaper reported.
The Herzliya-based intelligent video appliances firm ioimage has won a contract estimated at $4 million to $5 million to secure sensitive areas of Vatican City, the Israeli daily Yediot Achranot reported Nov. 20.
Roni Kaz, director of ioimage, told the newspaper that the examination of the city and its needs took three years.
The system includes “smart” security cameras that can be viewed in real time by computers connected to the Internet.
Iraqi Lawmaker Acquitted for Israel Visit
An Iraqi lawmaker was acquitted of a crime for visiting Israel. An Iraqi court ruled Monday that Mithal al-Alusi did not actually break Iraqi law when he visited Israel in September to attend a counterterrorism conference, Reuters reported.
Al-Alusi traveled to Israel on a German passport. He has visited Israel several times in recent years.
The Iraqi Parliament voted in September to strip him of his immunity from prosecution and charged him with visiting an enemy state, a law from the 1950s whose breach is punishable by death.
The court ruled that there is no law barring travel to Israel.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.