French Jews blame French Court Laxness 4 antisemitic attacks

[Semsem]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1093229945613

Aug. 23, 2004 20:07 | Updated Aug. 23, 2004 22:30
Jewish leaders condemn laxity of French courts
By MICHEL ZLOTOWSKI



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"Concern", "anger", "condemnation" are the words used by French leaders and the media following the arson of a Jewish Social Center Sunday morning.

The police are under high pressure from the authorities to act quickly and arrest as soon as possible the perpetrators of what could have turned into a disaster. Without the swift move of the fire brigade, the lives of dozens of tenants of the building above the Jewish center would have been in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom is due to meet Tuesday in Paris with the French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. Shalom said his trip to Paris was in support of French Jewry, following the latest anti-Semitic aggressions. Shalom will meet the leaders of the French Jewish community Wednesday morning. He will also try to see the French Prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin, the French minister of Interior.

Roger Cukierman, President of the Council for Jewish Organizations in France (CRIF), the body politically representing French Jewry, bluntly blamed the laxness of French courts when dealing with anti-Semitism. Recently, a court decision compelled a Paris secondary school to re-admit expelled Muslim pupils who had verbally and physically abused a Jewish boy, called him a "Dirty Jew" and told him, "You Jews will all be exterminated".

Joseph Sitruk, France's Chief Rabbi, told French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, "The struggle against anti-Semitism ought to be made a national priority. When the authorities decided to crack down on road accidents, they did it the right way and the entire French public suddenly became aware of the seriousness of the situation. That is how this should be done," said Rabbi Sitruk.

"However," added Sitruk, "It worries me to see that when perpetrators of anti-Semitic aggressions are caught and brought to court, the punishment does not fit the seriousness of the offence. Punishments should really be deterrents. The French government should state, exactly like French President Chirac did previously, that anti-Semitism is not the problem of the Jews; it is a problem for the whole of our society," Rabbi Sitruk told the French Prime Minister.

[Semsem]

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/468181.html

Cameras to be set up in Paris Jewish spots following arson

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent, agencies and Haaretz Staff



Surveillance cameras are to be installed at Jewish schools, synagogues and other sites as part of new security measures to combat a rise in anti-Semitic attacks, Paris City Hall said Monday.




Arsonists burned a Jewish community center in eastern Paris before dawn Sunday, leaving behind graffiti with anti-Semitic messages such as "Jews get out," police said.

An Islamic internet site operating from Paris reported early Monday that a radical Muslim organization was behind the fire, Army Radio reported.

French investigators, however, said on Monday they were skeptical about the claims of responsibility. Still, investigators said they were not ruling out any possible suspects in the fire.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement that tougher security was needed to cope with the "multiplication of anti-Semitic acts."

Security zones were to be installed around Jewish sites and, in some cases, the narrow sidewalks in front of sites would be enlarged, the mayor said in a statement. Jewish retirement homes, schools and places of worship would be among sites outfitted with video cameras, the statement said.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom announced Monday he would travel to France on Tuesday in order to meet Jewish leaders in the aftermath of the torching of a Jewish community center on Sunday, Israel Radio reported.

The foreign minister will also meet with senior French government officials to discuss the struggle against the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in France.

French officials condemned the fire, while opposition leaders called on the government to take action in response to the latest anti-Semitism acts in France and not just to use verbal condemnations, Army Radio reported.

No one was hurt as flames tore through the center located on the first floor of a six-story building. The center, a meeting place and cafeteria for the elderly and disadvantaged, was gutted, rescue officials said.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and other top officials visited the center, the latest target in a years-long wave of anti-Jewish attacks in France.

"I came here today to say that France cannot accept a trivialization of anti-Semitism," the prime minister said.

Raffarin noted that the maximum sentence for such crimes is 20 years behind bars. "Prosecutors will request the maximum sentences," he promised.

In a statement, President Jacques Chirac condemned the attack and pledged solidarity with the Jewish community. The government is "determined to find the perpetrators of this unacceptable act so that they can be tried and convicted with the greatest severity" that the law allows, Chirac said.

Firefighters were called to the scene at about 3:30 A.M. local time and had extinguished the flames by early morning. The center's wooden doors were gnawed by flames, while the walls inside were blackened. The apartments upstairs were not affected.

Authorities immediately suspected the fire was set deliberately. Inside the building, investigators found anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas scrawled in red marker. One message read, "Without the Jews, the world is happy."

Visiting the site, Rabbi Claude Zaffran said he was "deeply pained and distraught."

"We're very worried," he said. "I have the impression I'm seeing the same movie with the same script. Beyond the declarations and speeches, there must be strong actions to end the string of anti-Semitic acts.

"I am not afraid," the rabbi continued, "but as a rabbi with a beard and a hat, I am worried I will be targeted. There are many people and families who are saying that it is impossible to continue like this, that's it is no longer possible to send the children out on the Metro or a bus, and that there is no alternative but to go out on foot."

The umbrella organization of the Jewish community in France, CRIF, said in a statement that only hatred of Jews could have been a motive for the incident. Other organizations, such as the Jewish students organization, called on the media to begin a public campaign against anti-Semitism, while an anti-Semitism monitoring organization warned of increased acts against Jews over the approaching Jewish holidays.

Serge Benaim, a local Jewish community leader, also expressed frustration.

"It happens over and over again, every day now someone lashes out at Jews," he said. "We haven't resolved the problem."

France has suffered a long wave of anti-Semitic violence since 2000, coinciding with worsening tensions in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.

Some of the violence has been blamed on young French Muslims, although the Muslim community itself is also a frequent target of racist attacks. France has the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe.

The government has already made efforts to tackle anti-Semitism. In December, it announced a wide-ranging campaign that includes encouraging French schools to lead class trips to Auschwitz and punishment for anti-Jewish remarks in the media.

Extra security at Jewish places of worship and schools and tough sanctions against anyone found guilty of anti-Semitic acts is also part of the policy. Sunday's fire was discovered by police assigned to patrol outside a nearby synagogue.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and Paris Police Chief Jean-Paul Proust also visited the charred center, on a winding street lined with shops.

Proust noted that the fire could have been deadly.

"I have mobilized the best of my police officers," Proust said. "We will find those responsible. Sooner or later, they will be caught."

The head of the Foreign Ministry's Diaspora department, Nimrod Barkan, said yesterday that the French government was responsible for the safety of the Jews there. Barkan added that while the French government was showing it was committed and determined to combat the phenomenon, the French judicial system was unaware of the extent of the problem and the courts tended to impose very light penalties on offenders.

The chairman of the Jewish Agency, Sallai Meridor, called on the French judicial system "to change its attitude toward the anti-Semitic hoodlums."



Police guard the entrance of a Jewish soup kitchen after it was burned down in central Paris on Sunday. (Reuters)


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[Mediocrates]

http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?...rticleID=10851


Jewish man detained on suspicion of torching Paris JCC

Man, who was fired from his job as security guard at the center, is, according to sources “mentally unstable�.
NRG Maariv

French authorities have arrested a Jewish man on suspicion that he was the one who set fire to the Jewish Community Center in eastern Paris last week. The man allegedly burnt the place after being fired from his position as a security guard at the center.

The suspect, who is in his 50s, was detained for 48 hours. Sources close to the investigation told the French News Agency that the man was “mentally unstable�.

French paper “Le Figaro� reported this morning that police does not view the incident as an anti-Semitic attack.

The JCC was set ablaze last Sunday. Anti-Semitic slogans such as “The world would be a purer place if there were no Jews� and swastikas were found on the burned walls.

[Olivier]

The suspect, who is in his 50s, was detained for 48 hours. Sources close to the investigation told the French News Agency that the man was “mentally unstable�.

French paper “Le Figaro� reported this morning that police does not view the incident as an anti-Semitic attack.

the slogans found on the walls were quite inarticulate, hence the interest of this lead to a "mentally challenged" guy.

[Mediocrates]

They're right. Stay in France. You morons deserve one another.

[Olivier]

btw the alleged, but now very probable offender was .... a fired employee who worked in the center.

so he is a jew...


I do know why, but I feel this is to be placed in the same category the kind of nonsense behavior you would expect from Mediocrates ... writing cynical hate messages on hostages who are threatened of death is not only hatred. It is simply inarticulate.



let me give you an example of these terrible slogans
"itler", the guy didn't even place the H in hitler, probably didn't read main kampf
"mort àl'islames"... death to "izlames" .... that's so terrifyingly antisemitic ... to make such spelling mistakes, the perpetrator had to be quite a retard.

[Olivier]

and about the thread title, by the self-proclamed expert on france from my ignore list, note that there are reactions against the whiners who blamed "French Court Laxness 4 antisemitic attacks".


There was not "laxness", and the president of the jewish Consistoire de Paris, Moïse Cohen, called his overreacting fellow jews to "a little more thinking" before they start whining. The Consistoire de Paris is the owner of the center whose hall was partially burned.


note Sylvan Shalom, the israeli foreign affairs minister, who wined as well gets a little ridiculous.
Next time he seriously wants to fight antismitism, he can always tell Sharon to stop asking french jews to run away... because that's precisely what the antisemites would like them to do..

[MGB8]

Olivier,

Plenty of Jewish communitee centers employ (many) non-jews.

[KSO]

Just back from the Ben Gurion Airport and my conclusion is...
French Jews stay in France!
So many of them in the airport standing so long in line with such a heavy load to board on the plane, and most of them don't speak hebrew nor English so each one stands in security for 20 minutes average, because of them I missed prescious duty free time and left may Russians presentless...

[Mil]

Posted by Olivier:

Next time he seriously wants to fight antismitism, he can always tell Sharon to stop asking french jews to run away... because that's precisely what the antisemites would like them to do..

And what have you personally done to fight anti-semitism?

[KettleWhistle]

note Sylvan Shalom, the israeli foreign affairs minister, who wined as well gets a little ridiculous.
Next time he seriously wants to fight antismitism, he can always tell Sharon to stop asking french jews to run away... because that's precisely what the antisemites would like them to do..

Shalom has not only the right, but a duty "to whine" about anti-Semitism. There is nothing ridiculous about what he said. Same goes for Sharon encouraging French Jews to leave France for Israel. Israel is Jewish homeland. It is a place where Jews are safe from the internal, institutionally ignored anti-Semitism, and Sharon, as well as other Israelis, need to be more, not less, vocal in calling for the exodus of French Jewish community.

If the French don't like it, it is their problem, and they, not the Israelis need to work to change the conditions in their country. But until these changes happen, it is the responsibility of every Jewish person to talk about, to critisize the French government and society, and to encourage French Jews to leave France.

[Semsem]

[QUOTE=KSO]Just back from the Ben Gurion Airport and my conclusion is...
French Jews stay in France!
So many of them in the airport standing so long in line with such a heavy load to board on the plane, and most of them don't speak hebrew nor English >>

So what KSO French Jews speak French and many speak Arabic. It's high time you Russian Jews learnt French or Arabic. You can't expect the poor French Jews to learn Hebrew. It's not an easy language.

[Semsem]

Of course Olivier proudly announces that the man who burnt the Jewish Center was an angry Jew. So what? What about the 160 other attacks? They are also Jews?

[Mediocrates]

[QUOTE=Semsem]

Just back from the Ben Gurion Airport and my conclusion is...
French Jews stay in France!
So many of them in the airport standing so long in line with such a heavy load to board on the plane, and most of them don't speak hebrew nor English >>

So what KSO French Jews speak French and many speak Arabic. It's high time you Russian Jews learnt French or Arabic. You can't expect the poor French Jews to learn Hebrew. It's not an easy language.

Most of the French Jews I know are Mashadis....they speak Farsi.

[Semsem]

Farsi? Isn't that Iranian?

When my mother arrived in Palestine in 1940 the German and Austrian Jews insisted in speaking German. They had a really tough time learning Hebrew and there were no Ulpans. They obliged all the other Jews to speak in German.

Even the poor Yemeni Jews, some who owned stores had to learn German to communicate.