Blog : Philosémitisme

Paris: "Mort aux Juifs"Antisemitism rife among migrants

Paris is arguably Europe's capital of antisemitism. There are openly antisemitic political parties in the parliaments of Greece and Hungary but there is something very unfiltered about French establishment attitudes to Jews and something uncontrolled about the fierce hostility of French-based Arab immigrants. The prejudice is turning increasingly to violence and the unease drove as many as 6,000 French Jews last year to up sticks and move to Israel. 

Ironically it was the magazine Charlie Hebdo that fired one of its writers for antisemitism in 2009. The veteran commentator Maurice Sinet wrote a sneering article about the engagement of President Sarkozy's son to a wealthy French Jewish heiress. Speculating that the young man was about to convert to Judaism, Sinet concluded: "He'll go a long way in life, that little lad."  The same condescending tone could have been heard at any time over the past century and a half in French newspapers, salons, army messes or parliaments. There is nothing unique to France about this, but it seem more pervasive there.  And with the catalytic effect of a large hostile inner-city north African population, it is increasingly spiling into violent confrontation.  [...]

Yet the particular French problem [...] is rooted in the concentration of Arab immigrants from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria in its cities.  They appear to have brought their antisemitic hostility with them when France gave up its colonies. [...]

Source: The Times