by Israel Hayom Staff
After years of steady decline, Jewish community in France records sudden 53 percent rise in anti-Semitic acts between January and May of 2012 • "It is unpleasant to be a French Jew these days, and this cannot continue," says Likud MK Danny Danon.
A child is consoled in the aftermath of the Toulouse school shooting. | Photo credit: AP  |
The murder of Yonatan Sandler and three children at the Jewish Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse three months ago was one example of a frightening trend — a meteoric surge in anti-Semitic acts in France since the beginning of the year.
The Toulouse attack, perpetrated by radical Islamist Mohammed Merah, sent shockwaves through France, home to Western Europe's largest Jewish community and the world's third highest concentration of Jews.
After years of steady decline, the number of anti-Semitic acts suddenly rose by 53 percent this year, Army Radio reported Wednesday, in comparison to the same time period last year.
"There is grave concern," Meir Haviv, the vice president of CRIF (the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions), told Army Radio. "I have three children in Jewish schools, and though security is in place, you can't assign a police officer to every child."
According to statistics collected by the Jewish community in France, 274 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded between January and May of this year, as opposed to 179 last year. The Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee held a special session on the issue on Wednesday, hosting French Ambassador Christophe Bigot.
Ahead of the meeting, Committee Chairman MK Danny Danon told Army Radio that "it is unpleasant to be a French Jew these days, and this cannot continue. I expect the French government to do something. It is not enough to condemn the Toulouse murder — you have to act and educate and allow the Jews to feel secure."
During the committee meeting, Danon said that "anti-Semitism is rearing its head in France and we have to cut it off at the root. The State of Israel will not stand idly by while the world reverts back to the pogroms of the 1930s."
Addressing Bigot directly, Danon said "you [the French] are responsible for eradicating anti-Semitism in your country. Don't allow violence against Jews — stop the anti-Semitism before it is too late."
According to Army Radio, the most significant spike in anti-Semitism was seen during March and April, around the time of the Toulouse murders. Bigot speculated that the surge was a result of the same incident. "We saw a series of dramatic and barbaric crimes, but in recent weeks the numbers have settled to what they were before the Toulouse attack," Bigot said. "That is not to say that we can now rest easy — we must continue fighting this phenomenon."
"We have already invested 500,000 euros in addressing this issue, and I hope that we will continue investing next year as well," Bigot said, responding to Danon's demand for security at French synagogues and Jewish schools.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4857
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1 comment:
The answer doesn't lie in providing extra security for schools and synagogues but rather in persistent pursuit of the perpetrators and investigation of the communities which breed them. That is the only definition of cutting this off at the root, and I doubt that 500,000 euros will be enough for the French authorities to do this properly and permanently
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