According to various reports and at least two recently published books (Les Territoires perdus de la Republique, edited by Emmanuel Brenner, Mille et Une Nuits; La Republique et lslam, by Michele Tribalat and Jeanne-Helene Kaltenbach, Gallimard), schools and universities are becoming major hotbeds of anti-Semitism in France. In some cases, both pupils and parents insist on rewriting the textbooks in a more anti-Jewish or anti-Israel way or for programs or debates about Judaism or the Holocaust, which are part of the government-enforced curriculum, to be dropped. Jewish students, teachers or academics are physically or verbally threatened or abused in many places and get precious little support from principals or teachers or colleagues. It is more and more frequent for Jewish students or teachers or academics not to admit publicly or privately being Jewish, even in a non-committed way.

By and large, the Jewish community has reacted with a remarkable level of courage and unity to the new anti-Semitism.

Various groups and even elected officials (for instance, the Communist mayor of Seclin in Northern France) are campaigning for a global boycott of Israeli and Israeli-related (i. e. Jewish) goods, a move prohibited under French law.

Various groups or officials are campaigning for the suspension or the termination of academic cooperation with Israel or even with individual Israeli scientists, a move prohibited under French law.

By and large, the Jewish community has reacted with a remarkable level of courage and unity to the new anti-Semitism. Watchdog committees have been established. The major Jewish organizations of France have committed personnel and money to various investigative programs. They have approached the government on these issues and not refrained from rebuking some officials for their passivity or lack of interest. They have been effective in getting more coverage in the media and more accuracy in coverage. They have been instrumental in the passing of new legislation against racist and anti-Semitic violence (the so-called Lellouche Law, championed by the Jewish MP for Paris 9th). For more than a year, from October 2000 to November 2001, the French media with some notable exceptions, were reluctant to report about an anti-Semitic crisis. Since then, they have taken a more objective and realistic approach. Even so, some media keep referring to intergroup friction, as if Jews were engaging in racist violence as well or retaliating, which is not the case.

The French political class has reacted in an even more awkward manner. It has not raised the return of anti-Semitism as a major, national concern. Major political parties or NGOs have neither called for demonstrations against anti-Semitic violence (as was the case in prior, more singular cases in 1980, 1982, and 1988), nor associated, on April 7, 2002, with a mass rally against anti-Semitism and terror sponsored by CRIF (the Representative Council of Jewish Organizations in France). The Catholic Church has expressed some sympathy for the plight of the Jewish community but has not acted, so far, against some priests publicly indulging in anti-Semitic fantasies.

Most government officials either denied or downplayed the crisis under the socialist government of Lionel Jospin. The April 7, 2002, rally against anti-Semitism, which attracted a crowd of 150,000 in Paris, was marred by isolated violent incidents allegedly involving Jewish extremists. There is a strong suspicion that undercover agent-provocateurs acted in order to discredit most French Jewish organizations.

Things have improved in that respect since the 2002 elections, with the new conservative government led by Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Until 2002, the conservative president of the Republic himself, Jacques Chirac, would dismiss reports about anti-Jewish violence or harassment as a dark anti-French campaign. He is now assuring Jewish leaders he will always stand against anti-Semitism.

Under the socialists, the Interior Ministry was eager to downplay most anti-Jewish incidents and crimes. Even under the conservatives, it tends to be very cautious in its estimates. In a similar way, the Ministry is reluctant to enforce existing antiracist laws. No government action has been taken, for instance, regarding Rever la Palestine, an anti-Semitic book intended for a teenage audience, or regarding boycott campaigns against Israel and Jews. As a matter of comparison, the French government made sure to suspend overnight, in June 2003, the sale of a book by Eva Joly, the nation's most famous investigative judge, that raised embarrassing questions about several cases of politically-related corruption.

Very few people have been actively prosecuted or indicted for anti-Semitic offenses. Those who have have not been sentenced as heavily as the law would have permitted. More often than not, French courts have turned down complaints about anti-Semitism. There is even a case of a Jewish family that was sentenced to a 3000 euros fine just for having lodged such a complaint.

Outpost               - 4 -               November 2003