Anti-Semitism on the Increase

Attacks on French Jews are on the increase. The origins of this phenomenon are complex and have both historical and socio-political roots. An analysis by Bernhard Schmid in Paris.

For some time now, the Middle East conflict has been played out in the heavens; not in a spiritual sense, but in a very real way: satellite television channels play just as important a role as the Internet in mobilising supporters in the Arab-Israeli conflict, which is being escalated by many camps into a battle between ethnic groups and religions.

Taking steps against propaganda channels

France now wants to put a stop to the deterritorialised spread of this conflict within its borders. The aim is to prevent a certain type of nationalistic or religiously-coloured propaganda from inciting hatred among people living in France.

In more concrete terms, the plans of Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government are aimed at several Arabic television channels and in particular at the television channel Al-Manar, which is run by the Lebanese Shiite Hizbollah.

The channel is accused of having broadcast a 30-part series entitled Exile during Ramadan in late autumn 2003. The series recycled conspiracy theories about an alleged Jewish plot to rule the world, similar to the one outlined in The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, the famous forgery that emerged from tsarist Russia.

The French government now wants to give the country's Supreme Media Council, whose job it is to ensure that minimum democratic standards are observed in radio and television, the power to call on the administrative courts to take action against channels like Al-Manar.

The courts, for their part, could instruct the European satellite provider Eutelsat to obstruct reception of Al-Manar, which can be received by viewers in France with satellite dishes.

An increase in the number of attacks on French Jews

The decision taken on 31 January is closely connected to the considerable increase in the number of attacks on French Jews and Jewish facilities since the year 2000. Between 2000 and 2003, approximately 1,300 criminal offences against Jewish people and symbols have been registered.

A not insignificant number of the attacks for which suspects were identified or sentences handed out, were committed by members of the North African immigrant community. Many of the perpetrators were young men with criminal records.

A small number of the verbal or physical attacks for which perpetrators were identified, were carried out by French right-wing extremists, who often "jump on the bandwagon" and get involved when young immigrants unleash aggression on Jews.

The verbal attack on the French Jewish singer Shirel during a concert in the town of Mâcon in eastern France on 31 January is characteristic of such aggression. Between 30 and 50 young people, described as being Magribi, chanted numerous insults during the concert including "Dirty Jew!" and "Death to the Jews".

Five of the young people involved, four of whom were minors, were arrested and interrogated. To date, it has not been established whether the incident was a premeditated provocation or more a "spontaneous" outbreak; a reaction to a song entitled Jerusalem.

Solidarity in the fight against hate

However, 90 per cent of the Arabic or Berber immigrant community from North Africa condemn such attacks. Not only that, many immigrant groups try to combat the resentment between the ethnic groups "at grass roots level".

For example, Radio Beur, a radio station for North African immigrant children, and Radio Shalom, a radio station for French Jews, organised a series of joint events around the time the Israeli army marched into Jenin.

The pacifist French Jewish Union for Peace, which supports the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, and the more left-wing Association of Maghribi Workers in France have also been organising joint events for many years.

Identifying with the Palestinians

There is, however, a section of the immigrant community that makes no secret of its hatred of the Jews and gives free reign to its resentment. This group often sees itself as the victim of the ruling society. What's more, many young Arabs identify spontaneously with "the" Palestinians.

Their opinions are reinforced by the images of occupation they are fed by the media. Many young immigrants see parallels between images of oppressed people at military check points in the Middle East and their situation in France, where they feel plagued by daily checks and harassment at the hands of those in uniform.

At the time of the first intifada, which began in 1987, there was a similar desire for identification. However, the consequences back then were not the same as they are now.

"Enthification" of the conflict

However, it is not the legitimate desire to show solidarity, which is often coupled with a relatively superficial knowledge of the conflict, that is problematic, but the fatal "ethnification" of the situation, which has been ongoing for several years now.

Much of today's partisanship in this regard has nothing to do with the actual issues that originally gave rise to the current conflict, but a lot to do with the desire for the "better race" or the "right religion" to be victorious.

This explains why Jews living in France are being drawn into this conflict as if they were Israeli citizens or as if they were responsible for Israeli policies. Moreover, it explains the creation of the link to a pattern of behaviour indicative of conspiracy theories.

This is a recent development, which emerged for the first time in the form of increasing anti-Jewish aggression in France during the second intifada in autumn 2000.

Different shades of extremism

This sort of aggression should not be confused with the militant, political clashes involving extremist Jewish organisations such as the paramilitary Bétar and, above all, the extreme right-wing Jewish Defence League.

The latter mobilised the supporters of the ethno-extremist rabbi Kahane, who was murdered in New York in 1990 and whose organisations have been banned in the USA and Israel. These ultra extremists barely differentiate between their political opponents and Arab civil society. They have drawn attention to themselves in the past by disrupting pro-Palestinian events.

Hate is usually translated into action by groups that form spontaneously. Most of these groups are born in France's grey, socially deprived satellite towns.

In addition to these groups, there are small extremist, Islamist movements that seek to poison the atmosphere. They differ from the larger, moderate Islamist movements, which focus more on the relations between the sexes, and questions of Islamic dress or food.

The influence of the colonial era

Another cause of the present situation lies in the history of North Africa's colonial societies. More so than anywhere else, a layered system of religious segregation existed under French rule in Algeria. According to this system, the legal status of a citizen depended on his or her religious denomination.

At the same time, French colonial society made great efforts to assimilate Algerian Jews, who had lived in the country long before the arrival of the French.

Partly under the influence of Republican liberal ideas and partly to drive a wedge into the old-established population, the Crémieux Decree of 1870 granted Algerian Jews and European settlers full French citizenship.

On the other hand, the remaining 85 per cent of the population, which was made up of Arabs and Berbers, were granted almost no rights whatsoever.

The Maghrib: home to Muslims and Jews

Not only the majority of "Arab" immigrants living in France, of which most are in fact of Berber descent, but a good 60 per cent of French Jews hail from North Africa.

The result of the French colonial power's policy of division was that a growing part of the societies there in the 20th century began to view the previously integrated Jews as a sort of "foreign body" that was in league with the European rulers. This is why the vast majority of Jews living in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia left these countries after 1950.

These divisions and trenches are now coming to the fore once again; uncovered by the pressure of the social crisis and the many discriminations and disadvantages suffered by the immigrants.