Muslim youths attack Jewish war protesters
Robert,
Now compare that article to this one that appeared in the Washington Times on April 6, 2003. War makes for great irony. And mind you, the Jews that were attacked were AGAINST the war.
washtimes.com
By Kim Willsher
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
PARIS — Street protests against American and British military action in Iraq have escalated into attacks by Muslim youths on Jewish demonstrators, sparking fears of a new wave of anti-Semitism across France.
The French government was forced to appeal for calm after protesters, some of them carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein, burned the Israeli flag and turned on Jewish students, attacking one of them with an iron bar, during a series of antiwar rallies.
Officials fear that antiwar sentiment, supported by President Jacques Chirac, may be running out of control and could ignite widespread violence. Banners at recent demonstrations have shown the Star of David intertwined with a Nazi swastika, while protesters shouted: "Vive Chirac. Stop the Jews."
In response, French police have announced the formation of a new unit to investigate racist and anti-Semitic crimes, and stepped up protection for synagogues and Jewish schools.
Jean-Paul Proust, the head of the Paris Prefecture of Police, promised the new unit would "systematically follow up all complaints."
Mr. Chirac, whose bitter opposition to the U.S.-led military offensive in Iraq has won him widespread support in France, has remained silent on the attacks, but Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin sought to rein in public sentiment, saying that people should "not choose the wrong enemy."
Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, also warned demonstrators not to use the war in Iraq as an excuse for violence. "Whether it is a case of French Muslims or French Jews, each has the right to pray, believe and live his faith as he sees fit," Mr. Sarkozy said.
Public passions have been fueled by antiwar rhetoric in the French media, which have concentrated on civilian casualties and highlighted setbacks suffered by the coalition forces.
An opinion poll in the newspaper Le Monde found that almost a third of French people wanted Saddam to win the war. Only 53 percent wanted the Anglo-American forces to triumph.
The fears of increased anti-Semitism come only a month after French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin reportedly told a group of lawmakers that "the hawks in the U.S. administration are in the hands of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon."
Mr. Raffarin said last week: "We believe that this war was a bad choice — but the Americans are not our enemies. Being against the war does not mean that we want dictatorship to triumph over democracy. Our camp is the camp of democracy."
A government official admitted to concern about increasing tensions, particularly in the sprawling suburbs of France's main cities. In these areas of high immigration, police report a growing amount of anti-U.S., anti-British and anti-Jewish graffiti.
The official said, "It would only take a spark for this hostility to feed into uncontrolled forms of violence."
Last week vandals defaced a memorial at a British First World War cemetery in northern France, daubing a demand that Britain "dig up its rubbish which is contaminating our soil" alongside a swastika.
Noam Levy, a 24-year-old French Jew, was beaten with an iron bar as he took part in a Paris protest and needed several stitches to his head.
"As a Jew, I now know that I do not have a place in the antiwar protests," he said. "I was shocked by the comparison of the state of Israel to the Nazis and by anti-Zionist slogans." |
