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Publié le 23 Mars 2018

#CrifDinner - Speech of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron during Crif annual Dinner

Emmanuel Macron: "Antisemitism is the dishonor of France, and we fight every day for a Republic of honor and fraternity, so we fight every day against all forms of anti-Semitism."

TRANSCRIPTION OF THE DECLARATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC DURING THE 33rd ANNUAL CRIF DINNER

Paris - March 7th, 2018

Selected parts form the whole speech - Translated by Crif

[...] We must be determined in action, determined and solid and remember nothing, indeed, from these commitments made on May 7th. And in this dialogue that the Republic must constantly have with itself, the Crif has a special place. Crif has been for nearly 75 years, since its creation during the Nazi occupation, in hiding in Lyon, the Minister of State, the voice of the Jews, and the Jewish institutions of France. It is the spirit of the Resistance that founded it. Since then, Crif has been conducting a fruitful and permanent dialogue with the highest institutions of the state, especially for 32 years, on the occasion of this annual dinner, you have recalled, dear Serge [Klarsfeld], who has become an important time for meetings, where representatives of all beliefs and opinions meet. It is the spirit of the Republic that has impregnated it. And as Simone Veil declared in Berlin in 2004, before the OSCE, this confidence that goes as far as the tenderness between the Jews of France and the French Republic is first and foremost the fruit of history. The history of the Jews of France is that of a happy meeting, of a love often wounded, often offended, often humiliated between the old people of antiquity and the country that knew how to welcome and receive the richness of his spiritual, intellectual and moral contribution. It was in France and not elsewhere in Europe that Jews were first granted citizenship status.

[...]Despite everything, despite this inseparable history, there is indeed this spirit of the time and all that you have perfectly recalled, Mr. President, there are the hatreds that go back, there are the crimes of the worst kind, in 2006 a despicable murder to strike at the heart our national community, that year, for the first time since the Second World War, a young man, a young Frenchman died murdered because he was Jewish, kidnapped, tortured and murdered, in the name of the worst anti-Semitic fantasies. And since that date on the territory of our nation in Toulouse, in Paris, in Creteil, men and women, old people as well as children, have also died, executed in cold blood for the simple fact of being born Jewish by barbarians who had lost all sense of humanity. Still others have been coldly assaulted, abused, beaten. We collectively mistakenly believed that anti-Semitism had definitely receded in our country, and even in the face of these crimes, some have for too long made the mistake, the very moral fault, of denial.

Now, the reality is there and it is undeniable, alongside racism that continues to deeply undermine our society as a gangrene, for decades we have understood with horror that anti-Semitism was still alive. And on this subject, our answer must be implacable, France would no longer be herself if our Jewish fellow-citizens were to leave her because they are afraid. France would be lost if she had to admit as a fatality of the century, the presence within her of anti-Semitism, in her words, in her clichés, in these threats or in her acts. And I am ashamed, Mr. President, to have heard that there could exist in our Republic, such advice as you mentioned earlier, and I will do my best to ensure that this is never again the case.

We must never falter and we will never falter in the denunciation of anti-Semitism and in the fight against this scourge, there is no accommodation, no prohibition of language, no blindness possible, whatever the form that they take insult to aggression, stigma to murder, anti-Semitism is the opposite of the Republic. He is the dishonor of France. And we fight every day for a Republic of honor and fraternity, so we fight every day anti-Semitism in all its forms. And to fight against it is to ensure security, to fight it, it is to fight everywhere against the weakness of the spirits and to win this struggle of the imaginary, to fight it is to lead this battle to the school in the dialogue of the nations and on an international scale.

The right to security is indeed a sacred right in our country, ensuring this security is the first mission of the state. Terrorist attacks and Islamist terrorism have put us to the test and we are engaged in a long-term battle, you have also recalled it. This fight is not over, you have recalled all traces, all the bites in recent months on the national soil. Government mobilization is complete and so is our determination. And it is not only on the national soil, but in Syria, in Iraq, as in the Sahel that we are engaged. It is the fight against terrorism in all its forms that has led to the engagement and success of our armies and I want here to salute the courage of our soldiers engaged in Mali and the Middle East against Daesh and the terrorists.

[...] Jewish institutions know the work of our security and military forces, I hear and I understand their concerns about the operational modalities or the consequences of redeployments and the sense that these forces are when less present, the Minister of State, the Prefect of Police are fully mobilized on this topic by your side daily. You have pronounced the President also severe words against the French justice, you mentioned, I came back, the terrible aggression against Mrs. Sarah Halimi. I said very clearly and thank you for reminding me last July what my position was, supported by the simple facts. And I took a stand by calling on justice to shed light on the anti-Semitic dimension of Sarah Halimi's murder. And I am glad that this dimension could finally be recognized. That is what an investigation must be used to do, to establish the circumstances of a crime and to qualify it precisely.

[...] But this fight [against antisemitism] is not reduced to security, the first duty, it is also the fight against anti-Semitism in all its forms and especially on the Internet. You have called him back and I want to reply to your address here. I want to salute the tenacity of the work of sensitization and information realized for years by the services ofCRIF with the public, the public authorities but also actors of Net. The diagnosis in its clinical coldness, you asked it in 2012, before the massacre of the school Ozar Hatorah of Toulouse, in a contribution to the annual report of the CNCDH and it remains unfortunately still valid.   Let us keep the lesson of the absolute necessity of a firm, constant, persevering fight as an invitation to a true permanent pedagogy against this scourge to which the youngest are singularly exposed. The state has not remained impassible, the platform Pharos allows to seize the police or gendarmerie, reports to justice have operated by DILCRAH which I also welcome the work here, but we must.

But we need to go further and be stronger, which is why a mission will be entrusted by the government to Gil Taieb and Karim Amellal on the fight against racism and anti-Semitism on the Internet which must not only involve the public authorities, but also civil society and platforms. No track will be ruled out, including the possibility of legislating in this area. I want to say it very clearly here, we have launched an in-depth work since last July, especially with our British partners and all the European partners have joined, against terrorist messages, propaganda terrorist and, more broadly, all hate propaganda including anti-Semitism. We have put in place a number of measures and we have had a lot of progress on a voluntary basis and I want to answer you very directly, yes, the German law is an inspiring example of useful legislation, we are looking at the benefits and disadvantages. Yes, we hope that this year we will be able to lead at European level a fight to legislate to compel operators to withdraw all of these contents as soon as possible and to build the legal framework for the responsibility of these platforms and all of them. message broadcasters. This fight is essential because the hatred that sweeps over the internet is a reality.

This reality of hatred, you have recalled, is also the boycott actions regularly desired or conducted against Jewish or Israeli products, on this point, I also want to be perfectly clear, Mr. President, these actions are prohibited by our law, I consider them unworthy, I condemn them with the greatest firmness and they will always be scrupulously persecuted and sanctioned.

[...] The history of the Jewish people, their memory, their thoughts flow in the veins of France, inseparable from who we are and what we want to be, so it is not only the Republic that protects and will continue to protect your dignity, it is also you, who forge his own.

Long live the Republic and long live France!

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