JJRI
THE JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU INSTITUTE
A Project for
Democratic International Relations and for the security of Europe
The JJRI papers / 1
Facts, information and position papers from the
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute, Paris
ANTI-SEMITISM IN FRANCE
A Report and a Warning
by Michel Gurfinkiel
There is currently an upsurge of anti-Semitism all over Europe. In
France, the European country with the
largest Jewish community (600 000 to 1 million, or 1 to 1,5 % of a global
population of 60 millions), it is reaching alarming proportions. According to a
recent poll, one French Jew out of three feels threatened enough or unsure
enough about the future to be considering leaving the country or advising his
children to leave the country.
A few preliminary remarks:
1.
The
French crisis is not a case of “petty anti-Semitism”, as we may have known it
for about fifty years in North America and in most of Western Europe. It is not
a tale of marginal incidents being carried on by fringe extremists but a
development that affects the entire nation.
2.
It is
not a case of “mere anti-Zionism” either. Jews and Judaism, not “Zionists”, are
explicitly targeted as such by the contemporary French anti-Semites. There is
no decoupling, neither in their doctrine nor in their action, between the
Jewish people at large or the Jewish community in France or Europe and the
State or the government of Israel.
3.
This
is not a case where anti-Semitism is derived from a lack of information about
Judaism and the Holocaust. On the contrary, Judaism has been playing an
important and visible national role in France throughout the last decades of
the 20th century; and Holocaust awareness or pieties about the
Holocaust are deemed to be part and parcel of the contemporary national culture
of France. The Sixteenth of July, the anniversary of the infamous round-up of
Parisian Jews in 1942, is now a National Day. Every school where Jewish pupils
were arrested either by the German Gestapo or the Vichy France police has been
turned into a national landmark. Yet, it doesn’t prevent the new anti-Semitism
to gain ground day by day.
WHAT ARE THE FACTS?
1.
Rampant violence
-
Since
2000, anti-Semitic violence is rampant in France. According to the Interior
Ministry, anti-Jewish violence has dramatically increased, from a yearly
average of about ten incidents throughout the nineties to a yearly average of
about one hundred twenty incidents in the 2000-2002 period. 80 % of all racist
incidents in mainland France (the island of Corsica being excluded), are
anti-Semitic.
-
Some
twenty synagogues, schools and other communal facilities have been destroyed
either by arson or utter vandalization in the 2000-2002 period. A further case
of synagogue utter vandalization has occurred in 2003. It is worth noticing
that no synagogue or communal facility had hitherto been destroyed in a
criminal, pogrom-like, manner in France, at least since the Middle Ages. Even
at the peak of the Dreyfus Affair or even under the Vichy regime and German
occupation, synagogues as buildings were spared. The only exception is the
destruction of the Great Synagogue in Strasbourg in 1940, carried out by the
Germans (Strasbourg had then been incorporated into the German Reich proper and
was under direct Nazi rule).
-
Several
Jewish shops have been attacked in a similar way.
-
Jewish
people are routinely being molested or harassed in some areas, especially on
their way to synagogue or school, or at school.
-
Commando
style attacks against Jews have been reported. Jewish youths have been attacked
while exercising at public sports facilities. Jewish school bus have been
stoned or even shot at.
-
No
murder so far but one reported case of abduction and one reported case of near
lynching in the street.
2.
Explicit anti-Jewish climate
-
Murderous
anti-Jewish slogans (“Death to Jews!”) are routinely being shouted at large
scale pro-Palestinian or pro-Iraqi or Left-wing demonstrations in Paris and
other major cities. By the beginning of 2003, it reached such a level that it
could not been ignored anymore or dismissed as insignificant, and that
pro-Palestinian, pro-Arab and Left-wing organizations had to issue guidelines
prohibiting such slogans in order to escape being prosecuted for hate and
murder incitement.
-
Explicitly
anti-Jewish books have been published by major publishing houses, including
books intended for children and teenagers, a market that is strictly regulated
by law in France ( “Carnet de route en Palestine Occupée” by Danielle
Sallenave, Stock; “Est-il permis de critiquer Israël ?” by Pascal
Boniface, Robert Laffont; “Rêver la Palestine” by Randa Ghazi, Flammarion).
-
Jews
have been routinely ascribed the role of defenders or even convicts at debates
on Israel and the Middle East conflict, either at school or in the media.
-
Jews
have been pressured into disavowing “Jewish extremism”, a codeword for
expressing serious concern about anti-Semitism in France or siding with Israel.
Roger Cukierman, the current chairman of CRIF (the Representative Council of
Jewish Organizations in France), who has been outspoken on both issues, is
routinely described as “an extremist”. Muslims, however, are not being
pressured into disavowing extreme anti-Jewish or anti-Israel rhetoric.
-
According
to various reports and at least two recently published books (“Les Territoires
perdus de la République”, edited by Emmanuel Brenner, Mille et Une Nuits; “La République et l’islam”, by Michèle
Tribalat and Jeanne-Hélène Kaltenbach, Gallimard), schools and universities are
becoming major hotbeds of anti-Semitism in France. In some cases, both pupils
and parents insist for rewriting the textbooks in a more anti-Jewish or
anti-Israel way or for programs or debates about Judaism or the Holocaust,
which are part of the government-enforced curriculum, to be dropped. Jewish
students, teachers or academics feel are physically or verbally threatened or
abused in many places and get precious little support from principals or
teachers or colleagues. It is more and more frequent for Jewish students or
teachers or academics not to admit publicly or privately being Jewish, even in
a non-committed way.
-
Various
groups and even elected officials (for instance the communist mayor of Seclin
in Northern France) are campaigning for a global boycott of Israeli and
“Israeli-related” (i. e. Jewish) goods, a move prohibited under French law.
-
Various
groups or officials are campaigning for the suspension or the termination of
academic cooperation with Israel or even with individual Israeli scientists, a
move prohibited under French law.
3.
Unwillingness to react
-
By and
large, the Jewish community has reacted with a remarkable level of courage and
unity to the new anti-Semitism. Watchdog committees have been established. The
major Jewish organizations of France have committed personnel and money to
various investigative programs. They have approached the government on these
issues and not refrained from rebuking some officials for their passivity or
lack of interest. They have been effective in getting more coverage in the
media and more accuracy in coverage.
They have been instrumental in the passing of a new legislation against
racist and anti-Semitic violence (the so-called “Lellouche Law”, championed by
the UMP Jewish MP for Paris 9th, Pierre Lellouche).
-
For
about more than one year, from October 2000 to November 2001, the French media
– with some marked exceptions - were reluctant to report about an anti-Semitic
crisis. Since then, they have taken a more objective and realistic approach.
Even so, some media keep referring to “intergroup friction”, as if Jews were
engaging in racist violence as well or retaliating, which is not the case.
-
The
French political class has reacted in a even more awkward manner. It has not
raised the return of anti-Semitism as a major, national, concern. Major
political parties or NGO’s have neither called for demonstrations against
anti-Semitic violence (as was the case on prior, more singular cases in 1980,
1982 and 1988), nor associated, on April 7, 2002, with a mass rally against
anti-Semitism and terror sponsored by CRIF (the Representative Council of
Jewish Organizations in France). The Catholic Church has expressed some
sympathy for the plight of the Jewish community but has not acted, so far,
against some priests publicly indulging in anti-Semitic fantasies.
-
Most
government officials have either denied or downplayed the crisis under the
socialist government of Lionel Jospin. The April 7, 2002, rally against
anti-Semitism, which attracted a crowd of 150, 000 in Paris, was marred by
isolated violent incidents allegedly involving “Jewish extremists”. There is a
strong suspicion that undercover “agents provocateurs” acted in order to
discredit most French Jewish organizations.
-
Things
have improved in that respect since the 2002 elections, with the new
conservative government led by Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Until 2002, the
conservative president of the Republic himself, Jacques Chirac, would dismiss
reports about anti-Jewish violence or harassment as a dark anti-French
campaign. He is now assuring Jewish leaders he will always “stand against
anti-Semitism”.
-
Under
the socialists, the Interior Ministry was eager to downplay most anti-Jewish
incidents and crimes. Even under the conservatives, it tends to be very
cautious in his estimates. In a similar way, the Ministry is reluctant to
enforce existing antiracist laws. No government action has been taken, for
instance, regarding “Rêver la Palestine”, a anti-Semitic book intended for a
teenage audience, or regarding boycott campaigns against Israel and Jews. As a
matter of comparison, the French government made sure to suspend overnight, in
June 2003, the sale of a book by Eva Joly, the nation’s most famous
investigative judge, that raised embarrassing questions about several cases of
politically-related corruption.
-
Very
few people have been actively prosecuted or indicted for anti-Semitic offenses.
Those who have have not been sentenced as heavily as the law would have
permitted. More often than not, French courts have turned down complaints for
anti-Semitism. There is even a case of a Jewish family who has been sentenced
to a 3000 euros fine for just having lodged such a complaint.
WHO ARE THE ANTI-SEMITES?
1. A
Lebanon in the making
-
Unprecedented
demographic changes are currently taking place in France. In one word,
immigration from the Islamic world, both legal and illegal is reshaping the
country and turning it into a 21st century Lebanon. Conservative
estimates – in the absence of reliable race or religion-related statistics,
which are not allowed under French law - put the current Muslim population of
France at 6 millions, for a global population of 62 (almost 10 %). There is
some reason to think that the actual Muslim population may be closer to 8
millions (about 12 %). Over 50 % of the Muslims are French citizens rather than
aliens, either by naturalization or by birth: the French Republic bestows full
citizenship to every child born on its soil, whatever the nationality of the
parents (Jus Solis).
-
The
non-Muslim population is ageing and declining: its actual fertility rate is
said to be close to 1.4 children per woman, just like in most neighboring
European countries (Germany: 1.3; Italy and Spain: 1.2). The Muslim population
is young and rising: its average fertility rate is said to be of 3 or 4
children per woman and is reinforced by the practice of polygamy and
“importation” of foreign-born women. When it comes to the youngest age bracket,
residents under the age of 25, the overall ratio of Muslims rises significantly
(25 to 30 %). Muslim influence is accordingly to strengthen in education, in
the economy, in the professions, in the Civil Service, in the police and the
military forces, in politics. The “Muslim vote” is likely to be an important factor
in coming elections.
-
There
is evidence that intermarriage is common between non-Muslims and Muslims and
that most interfaith families tend to associate with Islam rather than with
Christianity. There is evidence that conversion to Islam in rising all over
France, whereas Christian faith and practice is plummeting. Several of the
French Islamist militants involved with terrorism over the recent years are
converts. Islam may thus develop soon into a fully all-French religion and
culture, and replace Christianity as the main religion of the land.
-
Anti-Semitism
is politically incorrect but robust in old, non-Muslim, France. It is
politically correct and virulent in the new, Muslim, France. Both brands of
anti-Semitism are reinforcing each the other. Many authors see this development
as the key to the present crisis.
2. Old
Anti-Semites
-
Radical
anti-Semitism – the philosophy according to which Jews are intrinsically
unreliable or evil and should be either marginalized or annihilated – has been a
strong minority opinion in traditional French culture and politics for the last
two hundred years. It was the background to the Dreyfus case under the Third
Republic and was turned, with comparatively little effort, into a State policy
under the pro-German Vichy regime, from 1940 to 1944. Even after it was
suppressed as thoroughly politically incorrect in the post-Holocaust era, it
has retained tacit or not so tacit acceptance in many milieus.
-
General
de Gaulle, the man who headed the French Resistance against the Germans and
Vichy, and then founded the Fifth Republic, shockingly described the Jewish
people in 1967, in a public speech delivered in the wake of the Six Days war,
as “an elite, self-conscious and domination-oriented nation”. One year later,
he alluded to “noteworthy Israeli influences” in French public life. All his
successors are reported to have resorted to similar radical anti-Semitic
clichés, albeit in private. Including François Mitterrand, the socialist
president of France from 1981 to 1995, who was close to radical anti-Semitic
circles as a young man and then remained for all of his life a close (and
devoted) friend of Pierre Bousquet, the head of the Vichy police during the war
and as such one of the main organizers of the Holocaust in France.
-
It
comes as no-surprise that the lesser ranks of French politics and public
administration routinely engage in radical anti-Semitic discourse or practice
of one sort or the other. Vilification of Israel as an illegitimate “Rogue
State” or even as a “little shitty State” is common among senior Civil
Servants, especially at the Quai d’Orsay, France’s Foreign Office. Compliance
with the “secondary” Arab boycott of Israel, a blatantly racist and
anti-Semitic operation, was forbidden by law in the 1970’s but nevertheless
upheld by special derogatory provisions issued by the conservative Prime
Minister Raymond Barre.
-
There
are two subcurrents in French radical anti-Semitism. One is Right-wing and
rooted in a conservative Roman Catholic or Protestant tradition: its classic
exponents were the royalist authors Viscount Louis de Bonald and Edouard
Drumont in the 19th century and the neo-royalist author Charles
Maurras in the 20th century. The other one is Left-wing and secular:
its most famous (and most extreme) exponent was the 19th century
socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who advocated “either sending back the Jews
to Asia or exterminating them”. They
frequently overlap. In fact, both subcurrents trace back to a single vision of
France as a “continental” disciplined and centralized society, immune from
capitalism and Anglo-Saxon influence. Whereas opposition to anti-Semitism is
usually stronger in more “Atlantic”, pro-Anglo-Saxon, milieus.
-
Left-wing
anti-Semitism was very strong throughout the 19th century, if not
even stronger than Right-wing anti-Semitism. The Dreyfus case brought about a
significant change in this respect, however: Left and Right were instantly
redefined in terms of either siding with a Jew in the name of justice or rejecting
him in spite of justice; and the Left had henceforth a vested interest in
keeping with its pro-Jewish stand. Still, Left-wing anti-Semitism gained ground
again in the 1930’s, both among the communists and the socialists, and was an
essential catalyst in the formation of two fascist parties, ex-communist Pierre
Doriot’s French People’s Party (PPF) and ex-socialist Maurice Déat’s People’s
National Rally (RNP). According to a recently published book, many if not most
of the surviving Left-wing supporters of Dreyfus reverted to anti-Semitism in
the 1930’s and sided with Vichy and Germany in the early 1940’s. After the war,
Stalinist-style anti-Semitism was ripe among Communists, while anti-Zionism
provided the New Left and Ultra-Left anti-Semites with a respectable façade.
-
Two
major post-war political parties, the Poujadists in the 1950’s and the National
Front since the 1980’s, have expressed radical anti-Semitic views. Softer
anti-Semitic views have been circulating at times among Gaullists and other
conservatives (especially after 1967), the communists, the Far Left, the
Greens, the socialists.
3. New
Anti-Semites
-
It is
a sad fact that traditional Muslim culture, both at popular and scholarly
level, is deeply contemptuous of Judaism and the Jews. It is another sad fact
that contemporary Muslim culture – either strictly religious or semi-secular -
is permeated not just by anti-Jewish prejudice but radical anti-Semitism as
well.
-
Muslim
immigrants come from countries where radical anti-Semitism is nurtured by
religious education, political discourse, the educational curriculum and the
media. Once in France, they keep in touch with their countries culture and
biases in many ways. Until the draft was abolished in France, immigrant Muslim
young men were tacitly allowed to serve in their original countries’ armies
rather than in the French army. Most of the Muslim religious leaders are
provided by, and on the payroll of, foreign Muslim governments or brotherhoods
connected to them. Most Muslim families are connected to Arab television
networks.
-
The
same considerations apply, to a large extent, to the French citizens of the
Muslim faith, who are just the brothers and sisters, or the sons and daughters,
of the immigrants.
-
French
Muslims thus live in a cultural enclave and are well-equipped to dismiss those
parts of the dominant French culture that do not fit their own culture. This is
especially true of the politically correct rejection of radical anti-Semitism.
-
The
more numerous, powerful and influential the Muslims are becoming in France, the
more devastating is the impact of their particular culture on the global French
culture. Muslim imperviousness to the politically correct rejection of radical
anti-Semitism is helping non-Muslim radical anti-Semites to voice their views
more confidently.
-
As a
rule, the more committed to Islam and Arab culture they are, the more
anti-Semitic French Muslims tend to be. Conversely, the less committed they
are, the more likely they are to reject anti-Semitism. This translates into
ethnic lines. French Muslims of Arab descent are usually religious Muslims and
unreconstructed anti-Semites. French Muslims of Berber descent (especially the
Kabyle community) are usually more secular and more prepared to reject radical
anti-Semitism and engage into good relations with Jews. Militant Berbers or
Kabyles tend to be frankly friendly with Jews and to entertain positive views
about Israel.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE
First and foremost, the present anti-Semitic
crisis in France should be addressed by the citizens of France.
Quite naturally, the present situation should
elicit appropriate reaction from the French Jewish Community and Jewish
communities in the rest of the world.
The fact that an important, democratic nation
in Western Europe is so quickly and so thoroughly undermined by anti-Semitism
should also be matter of concerns for other European or Western nations.
Some practical recommendations:
-
Information
or analysis on anti-Semitism in France should be widely disseminated.
-
Both
the French government and French society at large should be reminded that
anti-Semitism is not to be tolerated or minimized and must be suppressed.
-
The
European Union should be reminded about these matters as well.
-
Special
attention should be devoted in this respect to fields pertaining to education,
science, culture, religion, publishing, and the media.
-
Special
attention should be devoted in this respect to the Muslim groups or individuals
that resist anti-Semitism within their own communities.
Paris, September 12, 2003.
© Michel Gurfinkiel and The Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute (JJRI).