In a unanimous vote apparently indicating that France's
elected representatives foresee a deterioration in the
situation of their country's Jewish population, the French
national assembly approved an amendment that enables harsher
penalties to be imposed for antisemitic and racial attacks.
Sentences of three years or more imprisonment can now be
given for burning synagogues or physical assault on Jews. The
amendment also provides for a twenty-year sentence where
physical assault during an antisemitic attack unintentionally
killed the victim.
Jewish representative Pierre Lalouche of President Chirac's
right wing party and a group of other right wing members said
that they had initiated the tightening of existing penalties
because hitherto, French law made no distinction in the
severity of the punitive measures it imposed on antisemites
torching a synagogue and hooligans vandalizing a parking
lot.
Whether or not the French courts will avail themselves of the
new legislation remains unclear. In recent years judges have
been failing to impose even the penalties that previously
existed.
In almost every case of assault on Jews leaving synagogues
that has taken place in France in the past two years, judges
have invoked judicial discretion in order to repudiate any
link between the violence perpetrated by Arab youths against
Jews and antisemitism. One judge argued that these kinds of
attacks on Jews are not antisemitism but are understandable
in the context of Israeli aggression against Palestinians.
Another ruled that three attackers of a synagogue had merely
sought to rob for personal gain, rather than to destroy with
religious motivation. Other observers had different
opinions.
The assembly's move is encouraging in view of the ugly
atmosphere currently prevailing over here. Over the past
week, Arab shops in the suburbs of Paris have been displaying
antisemitic signs such as, "This store is forbidden to
Jews."
During the debate that preceded the vote, Interior Minister
Nicole Sarcozi unveiled a new initiative to bring Moslems in
France together in an umbrella organization, with the aim of
gaining a foothold in the mosques and expelling the fanatical
Saudi Arabian preachers who fan hatred of Jews and of the
West. It is generally considered however, that it is too late
for such measures. Extremists already control the masses,
while the North African states bring their own influence to
bear on the Moslem communities.
The Imams who took part in discussions with the French
government later denied having done so. They declared that
the French State has no authority to found a new Moslem
religion. Islamic experts claimed that Sarcozi was trying to
organize a type of French Islam, in the same way that
Napoleon brought Jewish leaders together and compelled them
to arrange a French-style Judaism in the Consistoire.
Almost none of the Arabs that have been caught and charged
with setting fire to synagogues and beating up Jews have been
imprisoned. Only in Montpelier were three Arabs sentenced to
three months in jail for attempting to set fire to a
synagogue. Jews say that the problem is not with the law but
with the tolerance of terror and anti-Israel incitement and
the French establishment and government's fear of the
Arabs.
No law as of yet forbids the publication of antisemitic
material. Last week, four hundred Jews demonstrated outside
the publishing house Palmerion, demanding that it stop
selling a children's book entitled Dreaming Of
Palestine which glorifies suicide attacks against Israel
and calls for murdering Jews everywhere.
The publishers invoked freedom of expression to explain their
refusal to comply with this request. The management argued
that if a ban was imposed on all controversial books, many
other volumes to which this or that sector took exception
would have to be withdrawn. Were antisemitic publications to
be forbidden, several books written by well-known French
authors like Ferdinand Selin would also have to be banned.
They claimed that a fifteen-year-old Arab girl wrote the book
and that the media espoused her view of the terrorists. It is
known however, that a Palestinian "intellectual" authored the
book.
Pro-Palestinian French intellectuals are currently signing a
petition protesting what they call their "persecution by
supporters of Sharon." The petition's organizer, Daniel
Mermet, who broadcasts a radio show that has accused Jews of
exploiting the Holocaust in order to justify crimes against
the Palestinians, was acquitted by a court of the charge of
engaging in antisemitic incitement after he argued that
Sharon's supporters deplored any criticism of the Israeli
Prime Minister. Mermet spreads antisemitic venom every day on
his show, which is broadcast on the official French radio
station.
