French
Anti-Semitism: A Barometer for Gauging Society's Perverseness
An Interview with Shmuel Trigano by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Anti-Semitism: The
French Crisis
Michel Gurfinkiel
FRENCH
ANTI-SEMITISM: A BAROMETER FOR GAUGING SOCIETY’S PERVERSENESS
An
Interview with Shmuel Trigano by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs, November 1, 2004
-The Jews' situation in France
is indicative of the condition of French society. Substantial anti-Semitic
violence in recent years underscores several of the country's major problems.
-Under the Jospin socialist-led
government (in power until 2002), the Jews became the country's scapegoat and
safety barrier, being on the receiving end of the main attacks - which targeted
French society at large
-The French government affirms
its determination to combat anti-Semitism while at the same time continuing to
feed the anti-Semitic discourse at its origins.
-The ongoing anti-Jewish
aggression has created a trend toward mental and behavioral ghettoization of the
French Jewish community. Many Jews now feel secure only in a Jewish environment.
One result of this is an increased enrollment in Jewish day schools.
-In a 2003 poll, almost 20% of
French Jews said that they intend to leave France.
"Changes in the Jews' situation in France in
recent years underscore many problems in society. The Jews play an indicator
role for various reasons. In addition to the long-standing symbolic relevance of
Jews in the Christian tradition, Muslims now utilize the symbolic position of
the Jews in French society in order to advance their own interests. Furthermore,
several political parties also use the Jews as a tool in their battles."
Professor Shmuel Trigano teaches sociology at Paris
Nanterre University. In 2002 he founded L'Observatoire du Monde Juif, a research
center on Jewish political life. It has rapidly become a prime source for
understanding the position of the Jews in French society.
Trigano remarks: "In the new century two phenomena
have come together. The first was a major anti-Semitic wave in French public
opinion when the second Palestinian uprising broke out. Israel was painted as a
monstrosity, a Nazi state intent on killing children. This anti-Israeli
discourse has much deeper roots. The anti-Semitic stereotypes were already
present, albeit in the background, during the Oslo process. The Jews were then
often accused of having 'too much memory of the Shoah.'
"Around the same time, a new outburst of violent
anti-Semitism took place. Its perpetrators were not ethnic French, but French
citizens who had come from an Arab immigrant background. There had been similar
incidents - although not as many - during the first Gulf War at the beginning of
the 1990s."
Trigano relates that the anti-Semitic violence went largely unreported by both the press and the public authorities for several months. "Even the Jewish organizations remained silent, probably at the request of the socialist-led left-wing government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. This silence was another factor in why the Jewish community felt abandoned by both the French authorities and the complacent society.
"The situation of the Jews in France was
aggravated as various media expressed opinions claiming that the violence and
hate was quite understandable in view of events in the Middle East and Israel's
policies. This implied that the destiny of French Jews was determined by Israeli
policies and French criticism toward it."
Trigano adds: "During the first months of attacks,
French Jewry called for help, but nobody listened. This led many French Jews to
realize that their place and citizenship in the country was being questioned.
They understood that the authorities were willing to sacrifice the Jewish
community to maintain social peace. This attitude was reinforced by the pro-Arab
policy in the Iraq War.
"Jewish citizens could not understand that violent
acts were being committed against them in the name of developments 3,000
kilometers away. Yet they were not entirely surprised by the violence of some
Arabs. They considered it, however, outrageous that the French government and
society did not condemn it immediately.
"They still remember the words of Hubert Védrine,
the former socialist minister of foreign affairs, which have in a number of
variants been repeated since by a number of politicians: 'one does not
necessarily have to be shocked that young Frenchmen of immigrant origin have
compassion for the Palestinians and are very excited because of what is
happening.'"
Trigano remarks: "Individual Jews reacted
according to experiences from the past. A well-known French Jewish
psychoanalyst, Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, told me that for her it recalled the
1930s. I was not born then and it seemed to me, at first, an excessive reaction,
because the French regime is a democratic one.
"My own associations were with our family's flight
from Algeria in June 1962 when we waited for two days in a military airport with
only two suitcases. We had closed the door of our home and left, as the public
authorities had abandoned us. We had to save ourselves in order not to be killed
in the chaos.
"The traumatic feelings have not left French Jews,
though the public authorities now try to combat anti-Semitism. Perhaps public
awareness of the problem has come too late. In France, self-censorship
concerning anti-Semitic discourse has been broken. Once one finds frequent
anti-Semitic expressions in public, a democratic government cannot change this
in an authoritarian way."
"The ideological process of promoting the
anti-Jewish hatred, however, continues both among Arab Muslim currents and in
extreme left- and right-wing circles. Generally speaking, there is little
sympathy in French public opinion for the Jews and Israel.
"By now the authorities have realized what is
happening. Yet one can only be surprised by the artificial crisis provoked when
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called for the emigration of French Jews to
Israel. The French government and media reaction were violent and
disproportionate. It came after Chirac's speech in Chambon sur Lignon, when he
condemned both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as well as after a major
condemnation of an imaginary anti-Semitic attack in the Paris suburban railway
invented by a mythomaniac non-Jewish woman.
"It showed once again that the condemnation of
anti-Semitism can work in tandem with France's anti-Israeli policy. This was
demonstrated also when France pushed the European Union to vote against Israel
in the General Assembly of the United Nations, on the issue of the security
barrier. This can only further encourage fundamentalist Muslim aggression
against the Jews. It also can only exacerbate the public's anti-Israel
animosity, and give them some kind of indirect political justification for what
is happening."
When asked whether France is an anti-Semitic society,
Trigano answers: "Until July 2004, when the French government created the
scandal about Sharon's speech, I would have answered this question in the
negative. I would have added that the answer should rather be that there is
anti-Semitism in France. Nowadays I am more perplexed and worried. We risk
moving toward state anti-Zionism.
"The great majority of the French media present
the same biased information about Israel and anti-Semitism to such an extent
that the public opinion considers this the reality. Our efforts to correct this
have had little success. This information has directly influenced incitement
against the Jews and the resulting aggression among immigrant youth and others.
This is still going on.
"It in turn inspires negative attitudes toward the
Jews unless they distance themselves from Israel. In the last few months the
leading Jewish community organizations, including the CRIF and the Consistoire,
have started doing this. This is a bad sign and a symptom of a very negative
reality.
"The state-owned media also communicate biased
information. There are several far going examples of this. The news director of
Radio France Internationale (RFI) has declared that Israel is "a racist
state." This explains why this government-owned station, which continuously
broadcasts worldwide news, has such a heavy ideological anti-Israeli bias.
France Culture, another government media, has subsidized a movie of a Jewish
anti-Zionist about the separation 'wall.'
"The Ministry of Culture, the Foreign Ministry and the National Cinema Center, a Francophone fund for audiovisual production and the television stations France 2 and TV5, have financed a movie by the Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah. "The Ports of the Sun" was shown on the Arte Television channel and in cinemas. It was widely acclaimed and portrays the Israelis in 1948 as Nazis.
"Arte has specialized in the production of
disparaging movies about the Jews and Israel. Most Jewish opinion leaders are
not invited to media discussions. The media discourse is hateful to the Jews.
What is shown and said hurts their most precious values. Their protests are not
listened to but rather lead to accusations that they are pro-Sharon, which means
in the prevailing atmosphere, pro-apartheid.
"The crisis of July 2004 has shown that there is a
perfect harmony between the position of the French Foreign Ministry, the
discourse of the French Press Agency (AFP) and the attitude of the major
newspapers. This uniform thought is extremely worrying. It is difficult to
understand how the government can affirm its determination to combat
anti-Semitism while at the same time feeding the anti-Semitic discourse at its
origins."
Trigano mentions that he is often asked to what extent
it was relevant that there was a socialist coalition government at the time the
anti-Jewish aggression rapidly increased: "It is my impression that a large
part of the French socialist party does not support Israel. Jewish socialists
have felt the need to create the Leon Blum circle - named after France's first
Jewish prime minister - which is an indicator of what is happening in their
party.
"This group, which also has non-Jewish members,
tries to explain the history of Judaism and Zionism to their party colleagues,
and draws their attention to the dangers of anti-Semitism. Its members include
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a potential candidate - with hardly any chance - in the
next presidential elections. Another is François Zimeray who was very active in
the European parliament to promote the investigation of the European Union's
support for Palestinian terrorism.
"The socialist party decided not to include
Zimeray in its list of candidates for the June 2004 European elections. There
has been much discussion as to whether this was a punishment for his pro-Israeli
position. Some say that it was in order to make room for another Jewish
candidate, Henri Weber - who is close to the party's number two, Laurent Fabius.
The truth is not known, yet there is enough additional proof indicating the
socialist party's lack of sensitivity toward Israel."
Trigano says that there are
convincing indications that the Jewish community was asked by the Jospin
Government not to give much publicity to the increased anti-Jewish aggression in
order not to 'put oil on the flames.' The then socialist minister of the
interior, Daniel Vaillant, reacted similarly on other occasions not related to
Jews.
"In 2002, the deputy mayor
of the southern French town Beziers was murdered by a Muslim. The official story
was that the killer was a madman. Recently, the city's mayor accused Vaillant of
having forced his version upon the municipality. He said that after the murder,
Vaillant came to Beziers and presented the madman story as 'an official truth.'
Later, it became known that the French intelligence services had discovered that
the murderer was linked to Al-Qaeda.
"Nicholas Sarkozy, who succeeded Vaillant as
minister, belongs to the UMP right-wing party. Addressing criticism concerning
his visit to the USA, he said in parliament earlier this year that he was well
received by the American Jews. He added that his socialist predecessor could
never have achieved this in view of his policies toward the anti-Semites.
Sarkozy told the truth. At the same time, this was another example of the use of
the Jews' situation in political life. Also many other politicians
instrumentalize the Jews in their ideological and political
communications."
"The official version propagated by the Jospin
Government can be summarized as saying that if Jews were attacked, this was not
anti-Semitism, but a reflection of a social problem. The socialist policy aimed
to obscure, with this mechanism, the terrorist menace against France. It
resulted in the Jews seeing themselves as the country's scapegoat and safety
barrier - as they had received the main blows, which targeted French society at
large.
"The Socialist Party wanted to minimize the
importance of the anti-Semitic acts because they believed that in this way they
could maintain social peace. They did not care about aggression against the Jews
and the burning of synagogues.
"The socialists were preparing for the 2002
elections and had to show their achievements. Giving publicity to the
anti-Semitic violence was inconvenient. It has become known that the police
reports on these incidents for the Ministry of the Interior were often
incomplete.
"The mechanism to suppress police information
about anti-Semitic acts is simple. In France, a complaint to a police office may
be written only by hand by the policeman on duty in a register called 'main
courante.' This inscription is not an official act and does not lead to
prosecution. The police commissary decides what is considered an incident and
its nature. Facts from the register are often not reported to the Interior
Ministry, as the commissary does not want to inform that there is increasing
insecurity in his area of responsibility. Thus, there are administrative
problems both in the ministry and the police stations.
"In addition, there was an official policy to
minimize the problems. This means that there is major government responsibility
for obscuring the true nature of the anti-Semitic attacks. One policy approach
is to relate the incidents as a conflict between communities, due to 'the
aggressive and inhuman policies of Israel.' This supposes that the Jews are
co-responsible for aggressions of which they are victims. If one speaks about
anti-Semitic aggression, someone must be guilty, as he has made a victim. If one
speaks of an inter-communal conflict, this means there is tension between two
groups, leading to aggression from both sides. Jews, however, have never burned
mosques or attacked Muslims."
"This discourse is part of a larger perverted one
concerning the Jews, which has become standard in France. The public attacks
against Israel during 2001-2003 came from all layers of society, as if it were
an official truth. One can only wonder how it was possible in French democracy
that all major currents in society propagated similar ideas. It was frightening
to turn on a television or to read a newspaper and see the same ideological
discourse of disinformation about Israel.
"The majority of viewers have no other sources of
information and cannot discern between truth, manipulation and lies. They see
selective images and hear handpicked Israelis, usually very critical of their
own government, express their opinions. Those with different views on Israel are
considered outsiders and troublemakers. For a long time, people like myself who
affirmed that there was anti-Semitism in France were considered a problem
because we deviated from public opinion. It was psychologically difficult to
live with that.
"What does such a reality tell about French
society? I do not believe in a conspiracy. There is no commander or organization
behind the multiple attacks on Israel. Yet the assaults create the feeling of a
near totalitarian society regarding Israel and the Jews. There were no public
protestations when the French peasant leader José Bové claimed that the Mossad
had initiated the anti-Semitic aggressions to hide what was going on in
Palestine. One can only explain this as an ideological mass phenomenon."
Trigano says that he slowly started to realize that the
extreme power of the media represents a major danger for Western democracy.
"Their attitude toward Israel and the Jews over the last few years has
shown that they can pervert analysis, debate and criticism. We are dependent on
a class of journalists with consensus political views. They read and co-opt each
other's opinions, without accountability to anybody. Freedom and democracy,
however, can not coexist if truth and facts are obscured."
When the attacks continued, Jews created several
associations to break the Jewish isolation. They started to fight the
delegitimation of the Jews and Israel's existence. Trigano's Observatoire
published two analyses of how the official French Press Agency (AFP) functions.
"We showed that French correspondents in Israel
rewrote Arafat's speeches to avoid what seemed politically incorrect. When he
attacked the Jews, they wrote Israelis. When Arafat said horrible things they
put dots instead of quoting him. They did this to present him as a liberator and
almost a secular saint.
"Catherine Leuchter has demonstrated that one
often can read only that Israelis have been aggressed after a media report about
reprisals against the Palestinians.1 The authors leave it to the end of their
article to explain that the Israeli operations are a reaction to a terrorist
act. By that time, the reader has already been imbued with the image of Israeli
violence and the Palestinian dead. He is misled as to where it all
started."
Trigano thinks that French democracy is in danger.
"The phenomenon of the anti-Jewish attacks must affect the destiny of the
society where these Jews live. I wrote a book on this entitled The Resignation
of the Republic - Jews and Muslims in France.2 I believe that the anti-Semitic
crisis has been a laboratory for French society. It demonstrates the major
problems of trying to integrate a large immigrant population at a time when
French society is in an identity crisis, partly due to European unification.
"France has two choices. One is to understand much
better the profound message that what is happening to its Jews is a warning sign
for itself. The other is to let the Jews sort out their problems themselves.
However, this choice would be a fundamental mistake because the Jews have been
attacked as a substitute for French society at large. The Muslim militants
comprehended that the Jews were the weak link of France, and thus the preferred
target. Moreover they are the most powerful symbol in French society.
"This was also understood by other internal
enemies of France, including those on the extreme left who want to eliminate the
French nation-state - as well as by the extreme right-wing movements. The
atmosphere of condemnation of Israel morally authorizes the anti-Semitism.
"Few people understand that these problems are
covered up by additional fallacies. One such fallacy says that if Sharon only
made peace, the West would not be threatened anymore. France's profound
problems, however, are not the result of Middle East turmoil. This crisis has
given French extremists the opportunity they were looking for. When Israel was
denounced by public opinion, they used this as an opening trying to become a
political force."
Trigano says that there are many indications of
collaboration between the extreme left, the extreme right and the Muslim
fundamentalists in France. "As far as the latter are concerned, there is no
clear separation between official representatives and extremists. The
representative organization of the Muslim community in France, the Union des
Organizations Islamiques de France (UOIF), is de facto the official counterpart
of the government, as it has received a majority in the French Council of Muslim
religion. (CFCM)
"The UOIF is close to the Muslim Brothers, an
extremist group which originated in the 1920s in Egypt. The prominent Muslim
intellectual, Tarik Ramadan, is a grandson of Hassan El Banna, their founder. He
lives in Switzerland and has become the charismatic leader of French Muslim
youth. Earlier in 2004 he launched a major anti-Semitic attack against several
French Jewish intellectuals, whom he accused of being tribalist.
"Radical Muslim fundamentalists collaborate with
the extreme left. The Trotskyites and the Greens made many demonstrations
against Israel possible. There, shouts of 'death to the Jews' were heard while
Hamas-adherents marched through Paris dressed as martyrs.
"The MRAP, which is in the orbit of the Communist
Party and strongly pro-Muslim, claims to be a movement against racism and
anti-Semitism for peace. One of its key figures, Mouloud Aounit, is close to
Tarik Ramadan and very hostile to Israel. In July 2003 the MRAP invented a
non-existing conspiracy of the Zionist extreme right, the Christian extreme
right and the Nazis, against the Muslims, with the aim of accusing the Jewish
community of racism.
"Behind
the scenes, the extreme right contributes to the disinformation campaign of the
extreme left. This right favors the Islamists for both Machiavellian and
spiritual reasons. They have been historically close to Arab nationalist
movements and the PLO."
One consequence of the multiple aggressions against the
Jews is the increasing creation of a Jewish mental and behavioral ghetto. They
feel marginalized and withdraw from the broader society to be among Jewish
friends. Trigano says that he frequently hears Jews say things like: "We
don't go to dinner with our non-Jewish friends anymore, nor do we see
them." He explains that at many dinners in town, people talk aggressively
about Israel and, thus, about Jews - who then feel the need to defend Israel's
position in view of the excessive criticism. They are then accused of being
supporters of Sharon and violence. In light of this, Jews decide to avoid such
discussions and meetings.
"Another phenomenon in recent years is the
increasing number of pupils and teachers in Jewish schools, as they feel
insecure in public schools. The Jewish school is for many no longer a free
choice. Attending it for security reasons is another indicator of ghettoization.
Joining a Jewish body has always been a voluntary decision. However, if one has
to belong out of insecurity, this means that the French public square is no
longer safe for Jews.
"Once again, the situation of the Jews is
indicative of the mood of general French society. There is a more moderate trend
toward joining private schools in French society at large. This development is
also linked to problems with youth from the immigrant communities, including
attacks on professors and other violence in public schools. Many private schools
are officially Christian, but religious classes are optional. This makes them
attractive also to more assimilated Jews.
"Youth from the immigrant community also have
prevented, in many schools, the teaching of the Shoah. The multiple problems
Jews encounter in French schools have been described in a book called, The Lost
Territories of the Republic.3 It was written by a number of authors under the
pen name of Emmanuel Brenner. Several anti-Zionist Jews - among them, Dominique
Vidal, editor of the Monde Diplomatique - have disclosed the name of the main
author, George Bensoussan. Brenner is a rare name in France and I am convinced
that the book would not have had the same impact had it been written under the
main author's very Jewish-sounding name."
Trigano explains: "In contemporary French society,
the views of the Jews are delegitimized in advance. The opinions of pro-Jewish,
pro-Israeli intellectuals are shunted aside by intellectual opponents as
resulting from their ethnic origins. They feel they do not have to argue with
such debaters about the validity of their arguments. The best you can often
expect is, 'Yes, we understand that as a Jew, you defend Israel.' The Jews now
exclude themselves from the intellectual discourse by seeking out non-Jews to
express their positions in public so that these are not automatically rejected.
"The French intelligentsia which is largely
critical of Israel has done nothing to prevent or protest the genocide in
Rwanda. One can count on the fingers of one hand non-Jewish intellectuals who
publicly support the Jewish cause. Among the best known is Eric Marty of Paris 7
University, who has published one of the first courageous articles denouncing
anti-Semitism. The fact that he was not Jewish made his testimony
authentic."
When asked, Trigano says that he has no personal
problems at the university or with his students. "But I have heard absurd
rumors that some of my students believe that I am the head of the Zionist lobby,
very rich and powerful, while some of my colleagues think that I am a 'case for
study.' This, of course, I am never told in person, nor am I treated
disrespectfully. These people aren't even aware that they have an anti-Semitic
attitude.
"At the university I remain silent about Israel
and Jews, as the overall atmosphere has been almost intolerable. Anti-Semitic
slogans have been on the walls for a long time. One hears the Islamo-leftist
student unions aggressive propaganda against Israel and the Jewish community
everywhere.
"Some French Jews show a different reaction. In a
study by the sociologist Eric Cohen, in 2003, among 550,000 Jews in France,
100,000 indicated that they intended to leave the country. Whether they will do
so is another matter. Whenever I lecture for a Jewish organization, people
always ask me afterwards: 'Should we depart?' Their wanting to leave France
indicates a perturbed identity there."
People discuss potential destinations such as Israel,
Canada or the United States. Trigano relates the story of a family member:
"I have a cousin who has never been to Israel. Recently, he asked me: 'How
do I go about buying an apartment in Israel?' I asked him where. He had no idea,
as he does not know the country. His attitude is an interesting indicator of
French Jewish reality as he has no concrete relation with Israel, doesn't speak
a word of Hebrew and is only vaguely traditional."
Trigano concludes by quoting what he said two years
ago: "Everyone understands that the present situation is, above all, very
French in its meaning and reality, even if it results from outside events. It
reflects the difficulties encountered by French society and politics confronted
with the sociological impact of mass immigration on their structures and routine
as well as the dismantling of the nation state due to the process of European
unification."
Now he adds: "The attitude toward the Jews and
Israel has increasingly become an indicator for what is wrong with Europe. The
process of European unification questions the validity of the nation state in a
period where the collective identity is already in crisis. The integration
problems of the mass immigration aggravate this further. It is too early to
understand what the combined consequences of these factors may be.
"The concept of the European Union might have been valid for the elimination of customs barriers. Europe, however, has no common cultural or political identity. Nor does it have common values. Its capital in Brussels is only an administrative and bureaucratic center. The crisis in European identity is likely to have further unforeseen and profound consequences for both the Jews and Israel. It is clear however, that anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism have been for the last three years powerful factors of collective identification for Europe. The Jews are at the heart of the European syndrome. These problematic developments have to be followed closely in order to rapidly analyze and expose them."
1. Le conflit israélo-palestinien.
Les média français sont-ils objectifs? L'Observatoire du monde juif. [French]
2. Shmuel Trigano, La démission de la République, Juifs et Musulmans en
France (Paris, PUF, 2003). [French]
3. Emmanuel Brenner, Les Territoires perdus de la République (Paris:
Mille et Une Nuits, 2002). [French]
* * *
Shmuel
Trigano is a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Professor of
Sociology at the University of Paris-Nanterre. He is Director of the College of
Jewish Studies at the Alliance Israélite Universelle, editor of Pardes,
a journal of Jewish studies, and author of numerous books, especially on Jewish
philosophy and Jewish political thought. Several of these deal with the topics
mentioned in this interview. Trigano is the founder of L'Observatoire du Monde
Juif, a research center on Jewish political life. (http://obs.monde.juif.free.fr;
obs.monde.juif@free.fr.)
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