Antisemitism in 21st-century France

Further information: Gayssot Act

After World War II, antisemitism in France was vitriolic, especially during the Six-Day War and the anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. These stereotypes were strongly accepted, following the successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust in the 1990s. At the same time, in the mid-1990s began the critical engagement with National Socialism, collaboration and the responsibility of the Vichy Regime, contesting La France de Vichy of Robert Paxton.

At the beginning of the 21st century, antisemitism found new sources from those of leftist views and from the identification of a significant proportion of the Muslim immigrant population with the Palestinian cause on the one hand and with radical Islamism on the other. A critical debate on the nature, as well as the denunciation of antisemitism linked to the situation in the Middle East (for example, the break out of the Second Intifada) and to Islam, led to divisions between anti-racist groups. Most Jews in France, like most French Muslims, are of North African origin. Maud S. Mandel uses this as the basis of her inquiry Jews and Muslims in France: A History of a Conflict, where she attributes the roots of Muslim antisemitism in France to intercommunal relations in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco; the course of decolonization, and eventually the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The idea of a rise of antisemitism in 21st-century France has been challenged by sociologists like Nonna Mayer, Laurent Mucchielli and others who indicated that antisemitic opinions were in continuous decline in France since the end of the second world war and that other forms of racism were more widespread than antisemitism. This position was criticized by members of the French Jewish community.

By early 2014 the number of French Jews making aliyah (migrating to Israel) had overtaken the number of American Jews. At the same time 70 percent of French Jews were concerned about insults or harassment and 60% about physical aggression because of their Jewishness, both figures being much higher than the European average.

Extent of antisemitic acts

According to the annual reports on the fight against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, conducted by the national human rights institution for France, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (Commission nationale consultative des droits de l'homme, CNCDH), disturbing levels of antisemitic actions and threats recorded in France could be found in between 2002-2004, and in 2009. According to CNCDH, antisemitic actions are defined as homicides, attacks and attempted attacks, arson, degradations, and violence and assault and battery, while antisemitic threats are defined as covering speech acts, threatening gestures and insults, graffiti (inscriptions), pamphlets and emails.

	Antisemitic actions and threats recorded in France
2001	219
2002	936
2003	601
2004	974
2005	508
2006	571
2007	402
2008	459
2009	815
2010	466
2011	389

Another source of data can be found in the Criminal Affairs and Pardon Board at the Ministry of Justice (Direction des affaires criminelles et des graces, DACG), regarding the number of indictments pronounced in the calendar year in relation to racist, antisemitic and discriminatory offences:

	Indictments relating to offences relating to racism	Indictments relating principally to racist offences	Indictments relating exclusively to racist offences
2001	211	152	115
2002	228	158	115
2003	208	145	105
2004	345	236	165
2005	573	380	253
2006	611	364	275
2007	577	423	306
2008	682	469	344
2009	579	397	288
2010	567	397	298

2015 attacks

There was an attack on soldiers guarding a Jewish community center in February 2015. During the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, the Porte de Vincennes siege involved gunman taking hostages at a Kosher supermarket. In the aftermath of the attacks, the French government increased the presence of soldiers outside prominent Jewish buildings.

On 24 October 3 Jewish men outside a synagogue in Marseilles were stabbed by a man shouting anti-Jewish slogans. One of the victims sustained serious abdominal wounds; he was expected to survive. The assailant was apprehended.

On 18 November, 2015 a teacher in Marseille was stabbed by three men who shouted anti-Jewish slogans; one of the men wore an ISIS T-shirt. The three men approached the teacher riding two scooters and stabbed him in the arm and in the leg. They fled when a car approached.

2016 attacks

On January 12, 2016 Benjamin Amsellem, a teacher, was viciously attacked by a teenage boy wielding a machete outside a Jewish school in Marseille. The attacker claimed to be acting in the name of ISIS. Amsellem was able to save himself by parrying some of the machete blows with the large, leather-bound Bible he was carrying. The attacker was a Kurdish Muslim whose family emigrated to France from Turkey; he was an excellent student form a stable, pious home who is said by French authorities to have self-radicalized spending long hours reading Islamist websites.

Public opinion surveys

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) opinion survey conducted in June 2002, 42 percent of French respondents believed Jews were more loyal to Israel than their own country, 42 percent said Jews have too much power in the business world and 46 percent believed Jews talked too much about the Holocaust. According to Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director "These findings are especially disturbing because they show that the old, classical form of antisemitism, which we had hoped was long gone in Europe, continues to be resilient".

In 2004, the same opinion survey was conducted once again by the ADL. According to the report, 25 percent of the French public held antisemitic attitudes, down from 35 percent in 2002. 28 percent responded "probably true" to the statement, "Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own country", down from 42 percent in 2002. 15 percent responded "probably true" to the statement, "Jews don't care about anyone but their own kind", down from 20 percent.

In May 2005, the ADL has published an opinion survey regarding European attitudes toward Jews. The 2005 survey indicated that over that year there has been some decline in the acceptance of certain traditional antisemitic stereotypes in France. 25 percent responded "probably true" to the statement, "Jews have too much power in the business world", down from 33 percent in 2004, while 24 percent responded "probably true" to the statement "Jews have too much power in international financial markets", down from 29 percent in 2004.

Two years later, in May 2007, the ADL has published another opinion survey, which found that 22 percent of French respondents answered "probably true" to at least three of the four antisemitic stereotypes tested: Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country, Jews have too much power in the business world, Jews have too much power in international financial markets, Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust. According to the survey, there has been a significant shift in the opinions of respondents regarding the cause of violence directed against French Jews - from anti-Israel sentiment to anti-Jewish feelings instead.

According to the report, "Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination - A European Report", published by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) organization in 2011, anti-Semitic attitudes in France the same year, as a whole, are less widespread than the European average. According to a survey conducted by FES, 27.7 percent agreed with the statement "Jews have too much influence in France" and 25.8 percent agreed with the statement "Jews in general do not care about anything or anyone but their own kind" (implying disloyalty to the nation).

The following year, the ADL conducted an opinion survey in 10 European countries regarding antisemitic attitudes. According to the survey, the overall level of antisemitism in France increased to 24 percent of the population, up from to 20 percent in 2009 - 45 percent responded "probably true" to the statement, "Jews are more loyal to Israel" than their own country, up from 38 percent in 2009. 35 percent responded "probably true" to the statement, "Jews have too much power in the business world", up from 33 percent in 2009. 29 percent responded "probably true" to the statement "Jews have too much power in international financial markets", up from 27 percent in 2009. Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, has said regarding those findings: "In France, you have a volatile mix. France has seen an increase in the level of anti-Semitism. At the same time, more people today believe that violence directed against European Jews is fueled by anti-Jewish attitudes as opposed to anti-Israel sentiment. Those increases are all the more disturbing in light of the shooting attack at the Jewish school in Toulouse."

Responses to antisemitism and racism

• In December 2014, The Organization of Jewish Europeans (OJE) started using humor to battle France's rising tide of antisemitism. It distributed boxes of Antisemitox: the first treatment against antisemitism. They contain three sweets, several detox patches and the text of the law stating the penalties faced by those who express antisemitic views. The poster for the campaign shows a doctor wearing a white coat and a stethoscope, brandishing a packet of the pills. "The honey candies contained in the packages work to immediately soften the antisemitic words and behavior that are the first symptoms", the organizers of the campaign said in a statement.
• In December 2013, six members of the French Jewish Defense league were arrested by French police for carrying out physical assaults against suspected anti-Semites in Lyon and Villeurbanne.
• In October 2013, Alexis Dubruel, a lawyer from eastern France, was disbarred by the French Bar Association after filing a motion to disqualify judge Albert Levy from presiding over a custody case due to his Jewish origins. In another case, a Paris court sentenced a blogger who had been convicted for posting material inciting discrimination and violence against Jews to eight months in prison and a $670 fine, and ordered him to pay $2,000 in damages to people he targeted.
• In August 2012, members of the French Jewish Defense League attacked and beat a group of Arab men they suspected of perpetrating an anti-semitic attack the previous day.
• In November 2007, dismissed teacher Vincent Reynouard was sentenced to one year imprisonment and fined 10,000 euro for denying the Holocaust.
• On 26 October 2007, the district attorney of Paris imposed on Kemi Seba, founder of the banned Tribu KA, a sentence of five months in prison, a fine of 10,000 euro and the forfeiting of his civic rights for five years, for inciting racial hatred and denying crimes against humanity.
• On 21 March 2006, in a report submitted to Prime Minister de Villepin, the Commission nationale consultative des droits de lhomme (CNCDH), recommended measures to fight antisemitism.
• On 10 March a Paris court fined the comedian Dieudonné MBala MBala 5,000 euro for antisemitic comments.
• In November 2006, a Lyon court fined Bruno Gollnisch, second in command of the FN, 10,000 euro for questioning the existence of the Holocaust.
• On 15 January 2006, a French court fined Yahoo $15 million for selling Nazi memorabilia.
• In November 2005, the Foundation for Shoah Remembrance distributed a DVD about the Holocaust to 28,000 high school students, teachers and libraries in the Paris area.
• On 13 June 2005, Judge Emmanuel Binoche ruled that Internet service providers must filter access to the AAARGH (Association of Veteran Fans of Stories of War and Holocausts) which disseminates Holocaust denial.
• On 10 February 2005, the French Broadcasting Authority ordered the French satellite provider Eutelsat to stop transmitting broadcasts from the Iranian satellite TV channel Sahar 1, following screening of antisemitic content.
• On 13 December 2004 the Council of State, banned Hizballah’s al-Manar transmissions on the grounds that some of its programs were antisemitic.
• In July 2004, the Minister for Social Affairs asked the secretary general of the High Council for Integration, to evaluate government policy on the subject of combating antisemitism and to submit proposals.
• In June 2003, an appeals court in Lyon upheld editor Jean Plantin’s 6-month prison sentence, for publishing works doubting the scope of the Holocaust.
• In March 2003, A conference of Catholics and Jews took place in Paris to discuss antisemitism in Europe and the place of religion in the proposed EU constitution.
• In 2003, 19 people were arrested and 5 search warrants were issued against non-identified individuals, in connection with antisemitic offenses.
• On 12 April 2003, 3 students, one French, one Dutch and one Tunisian, were arrested for incitement to racial hatred and antisemitism.
• In August 2002, the government outlawed the rightist group Radical Unity.
• In February 2002, French Minister of Education Jack Lang set up a commission to examine Holocaust denial at the University of Lyon III.
• In 2001, the Ligue de Défense Juive, a French offshoot of the American Jewish Defense League was formed, receiving considerable media attention, although most of the media decried the violence of the JDL, the principal weapon, it appears, in their fight against antisemitism.
• In 2001, The French anti-racism group, Action internationale pour la justice (AIPJ, another name for J’Accuse) sought a court injunction to block a Nazi US web portal Front 14, which groups some 400 racist websites.
• In 2000, the FN split resulted in diminished activity by the main anti-fascist organizations.
• In 2000, LICRA (Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme), focused mainly on combating hate on the Internet and has set up branches abroad.

External links

• The Lure of Anti-Semitism - Hatred of Jews in Present-Day France
• Country Reports, The Stephen Ruth Institute for The Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism
• Antisemitism - Summary overview of the situation in the European Union 2001–2011, FRAfr:Antisémitisme en France#Actuellement