Nathalie Soussan loves her native France but thinks she may have to build a life elsewhere. At 21 she is an intern for the French House at Columbia University, and says she is afraid to return to France because of the pervasive acceptance of anti-Semitism and violence against Jews in her country. Soussan is Jewish.
There are roughly 5 million Muslims and 650,000 Jews in France, the largest number for both communities in Europe. Most of the attacks on Jews occur in Paris suburbs and other neighborhoods where Jews and Muslims live in close proximity.
“Since the Jewish and Muslim communities are the largest, it is not surprising that misinformation and lack of education can lead to anti-Semitic hate crimes in France,” says Laila Al-Qatami, spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League.
The outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000 sparked a wave of Middle East-related anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, with the largest number occurring in France: 1,300 recorded since 2001, the highest level since World War II, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
At the same time there has been an increase in the number of Jews leaving France to live in Israel. According to Israeli government figures, 2,556 French Jews immigrated to Israel last year, double the number of a year earlier and the most since the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War. Though the Jewish Agency in Paris said these figures were ‘more about protecting Israel than fleeing France,’ a recent poll published by JTA Global News Service indicated that more than a quarter of French Jews are considering leaving in the wake of the attacks against the country’s Jewish community.
As the number of incidents increased, some French Jews stopped turning to the police. Many accused the authorities of downplaying anti-Semitism. Making matters worse, there are areas of France (including suburbs of Paris and Marseilles) that police are simply afraid to enter for fear of being out-gunned by roving gangs. As a result, French Jews began logging complaints with the SOS Truth and Security Organization, a grass roots group established in Paris by a former police commissioner. Data on the incidents is compiled, analyzed, and published by the Wiesenthal Center.
“Though a lot of Jews in France feel very French, they also feel abandoned by their government because the officials have not acted strongly enough to stop the violence,” says Nathalie Soussan, who will return home to Paris this month.
In a recent interview, Emmanuel Gagniarre of the French Embassy in Washington, said: “The French government is doing what it can. There have been anti-Semitic incidents in the past, and unfortunately there will likely be more again….But for anyone to imagine that France could be anti-Semitic is propaganda.””
Gary Ratner, executive director of the American Jewish Congress West Coast Region, agrees that the French government is cracking down, but he says he believes the recent upsurge of incidents are a result of Jacques Chirac’s anti-Israel and anti-American attitudes.
“When he was the Mayor of Paris in the 70’s and 80’s Chirac was a real friend to the Jewish community and spent a lot of money and effort to help Jewish institutions, and Jews thrived in Paris, which in some regards is still the case,” Ratner says. He believes Chirac really likes Jews as individuals but is anti-Israel for a variety of reasons, principally because of the donations he received from Saudi Arabia and Lebanon during his presidential campaign.
Early last month, Agence France-Presse reported that Chirac called for the ‘utmost vigilance and firmness’ in the face of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic acts, noting he was worried that the war in Iraq would spark further tensions between the Jewish and Muslim communities in France.
