CHIRAC WORRIED BY ANTI-SEMITISM

At this meeting initiated by CRIF, President Chirac said that the French courts should severely condemn anti-Semitic attacks. "Justice must be done with severity, punishments should be an example and they should be widely publicized," said Chirac.

President Cukierman complained about the leniency of the French courts when sentencing anti-Semitic attacks.

In the past weeks, two courts dismissed cases brought against stand-up comedian Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala for his anti-Semitic statements and shows. The comedian appeared on a TV talk show shouting "Israel, Heil!" giving the Nazi salute, clad in army fatigues, wearing a hood, a large black hat and side locks mimicking those of the Orthodox Jews. Addressing the immigrants of Muslim origin, he said "I encourage the young people who are watching us in the suburbs to do as I did: convert! Pull yourself together! Join the axis of good, the American-Zionist axis!"

In 2002, the comedian was interviewed about the rise of anti-Semitism among the French Muslim youth. The 38-year old comedian born to an African father and a French mother said, "Abraham created racism. A Chosen People! That is the source of racism. What is happening today is the Muslim's answer to that. (…). To my opinion, Jews are a sect, a fraud. The most dangerous one, because it is the first one."

.In a related issue, an administrative tribunal recently reversed a decision to expel from school two Muslim teenagers who attacked a Jewish pupil attending the same class. The two teenagers were expelled following a protracted battle between the parents of the Jewish pupil and the headmaster of the prestigious Parisian Montaigne high school who was reluctant to address the issue.

At the meeting with President Chirac, Roger Cukierman suggested that the parents of teenagers convicted for a racist or anti-Semitic offence should appear before the local mayor and be taught a short lesson in civic behavior. Cukierman also suggested that people convicted for a racist or anti-Semitic offence should be ineligible for any public office.

The second suggestion was related to the results of the recent elections to the European Parliament. Roger Cukierman deplored the "Very impressive scores of the Euro-Palestine list, a list based on hatred." The stand-up comedian Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala was one of the leaders of the list.

The Jewish delegation led by CRIF's Roger Cukierman included CRIF's Vice President Roger Benarrosh, Consistoire Central's President Jean Kahn and Vice President Zvi Ammar, France's Chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk and his close aide rabbi Haim Korsia.