Speech by Crif's President Richard Prasquier
Mr. Prime Minister,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
CRIF has hosted this dinner for twenty-five years now, twenty-five years during which you and your predecessors, not to mention the President of the Republic, to whom I address thanks for the honor he does us once again, have been coming to join in discussion with the Jewish community. Twenty-five years to be proud that the CRIF dinner counts as a major Republican gathering.
Liberty, equality, fraternity.
Three very significant words for the Jews of France. They were eclipsed during the few years when the State dishonored itself. They reappeared when we ourselves again became full-fledged citizens.
FRATERNITY...
What other word can be used after the earthquake in Haiti? To the Officer in charge of Haitian affairs, we bow our heads to the victims, our brothers and sisters.
One hundred fifty thousand deaths, it is said. The macabre head count only takes on meaning if we create space for silence and meditation in our hectic and futile lives, to reflect on individuals rather than numbers, on those who are buried under earth and rubble, on their desperate and fleeting calls, on crushed futures, mutilated bodies and lost families with no survivors to carry on their memory. We give honor and material support to the organizations on the ground, and are proud to see among them French NGOs and Israeli humanitarian missions.
LIBERTY...
I recently saw a photo of Resistance fighters, members of Affiche Rouge, who were about to be shot at Mont Valérien. Foreigners, Jews from Central Europe, Spain or Armenia, I imagine they cried out "Vive la France" just like thousands of other Resistance fighters in their final moments. They had, like General De Gaulle, "a certain idea of France", not necessarily the same one, but in any case that of a country of freedom. They died for France, and thanks to them, we live today in a free and democratic country.
The Jews participated extensively in the defense of their homeland. Two symbols of their fight: One is the massive engagement of foreign Jews in the French army following the declaration of war, with, in the hall, an exhibit prepared by the Veterans' and Volunteer Soldiers' Union, the other, the rescue and combat within the Resistance, as represented by certain exemplary members of our community, such as Georges Loinger, our incomparable centenarian who will, exceptionally, say a few words over the course of this evening.
Let us not forget that the true democracies are in the minority at the global level. Liberty is not just the end of oppression. History is filled with liberation movements that, once victory is obtained, have done away with liberty.
I think of the crowds who fervently welcomed Khomeini, believing they had been liberated from the oppression of the Shah's government, and who have since been subject to over thirty years of an obscurantist regime that stops at nothing to stay in power. I salute the courage of those Iranians who risk their lives today to fight for liberty.
Democracies sometimes forget that they have enemies. These enemies have an ideology, they want to strengthen their hold on minds and actions. They demand the freedom to threaten our freedoms.
Extremists are in the minority, but potentially very damaging. They exercise psychological and physical intimidation over peaceful majorities. They were the gravediggers for freedom in the 20th century.
Today, radical Islam is a danger to Jews, to Muslims, and to our societies. Islamic movements are varied. But hatred for Israel and the Jews is an effective glue that glosses over all hostilities.
Religions are what men make of them. Torquemada is not Jean Paul II and Bin Laden is not Abd al-Kadir.
I salute the representatives of Islam in France, with whom we join in support of the Republic and its values. I salute the representatives of the Christian churches. I also wish to assure Cardinal Ricard that we are aware of the solid and amicable relations on which Judeo-Catholic dialogue is founded. Occasional difficulties - yes, we do want the archives from the pontificate of Pius XII to be opened - will not affect it.
Liberty is also freedom of religion.
It is structured, in France, by the secularism of our institutions. Secularism is not the faith of those who have no faith. It is a separation that frames shared limitations. Religious imperatives may sometimes pose delicate issues, which are resolved by taking into account the human consequences, through secular dialogue. This is neither combative, nor complacent, secularism.
No one should be prevented from practicing his religion, nor required to practice it. Everyone must be able to change beliefs if they so desire. But the freedom of some must not impede the freedom of others; the liberty of all must not be endangered by the demands of a few.
All religions may be criticized, as long as we respect the people who follow them. The criminalization of blasphemy, such as occurred recently in Ireland, is a worrying sign. Calls for a global blasphemy law were made at the Geneva Conference. Taking this path would mean condemning Galileo, Voltaire and Darwin, and rejecting the lessons of the Enlightenment.
Freedom of expression is the foundation for democracy. But liberty without the rule of law is the law of the jungle. This path is narrow, but there is no other.
The Jews are at the heart of debates where limits to freedom of expression are pursued.
On the one hand, they know how much they have benefited from free societies. On the other, they have been slandered more than any other group of people. Let us not forget that Drumont's anti-Semitic newspaper was called Libre Parole ("Free Speech").
There is no freedom without rules, there is no freedom without remembrance, there is no freedom without truth.
The Internet, which authoritarian regimes censor without hesitation, allows racism and anti-Semitism to mushroom. The contradictory imperatives of freedom of expression and fighting hate speech must be adapted to national traditions, many of which do not include such a complete body of law as that in France.
We wish that criminal policy be extended to ordinary racism on the Internet, with prosecutions, with improved surveillance, with the help of those watchdogs which are the anti-racist associations. We believe that young people should receive the benefit of a true Internet education policy.
A Swedish journalist published an article six months ago in which he accused the Israeli army of removing the organs of a young Palestinian for transplant, during a military operation that took place twenty years ago. No credible evidence: the shocking photo was that of a regular autopsy.
The next day articles appeared on websites saying that it had just been proven that the Israeli army had not only killed Palestinians, but had also harvested their organs. Accusations of ritual killings found new expression. Many readers must have thought that there is no smoke without fire, the editor in chief assumed the role of conscientious defender of freedom of expression, and no one wanted to appear to support censorship.
When Israeli rescue teams distinguished themselves in Haiti, you can't be surprised that certain blogs announced that they had come to access a supply of organs.
This is how rumor is manufactured. And this one, like so many before it, targets Israel above all...
Freedom of expression must be subordinate to respect for the truth.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
If there is one place where the word "freedom" resonates the strongest, it is in Auschwitz. I have just come from there, after accompanying the Secretary for Veterans’ Affairs and Ms Simone Weil, as well as concentration camp survivors, resistance fighters and Holocaust remembrance activists, to the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the camp.
Two years ago, the President launched an invitation at this venue for the preservation of the memory of Jewish children who were victims of the Holocaust. Many new initiatives were launched in our schools in response to this call. The pursuit of Holocaust Remembrance was greatly strengthened. Mr. Prime Minister, I ask that you transmit our thanks to the President.
We must protect the survivors whom the revisionists try to humiliate by questioning their word; we must preserve remembrance of the victims, from whom they wish to steal even their deaths. Revisionism has nothing to do with freedom of research; it is not an opinion, it is hatred, it is justification for murder, it is a new call to murder.
The miscreants who make it their business are neither historians nor comedians; they are anti-Semites.
Today's revisionism has several variants. The hypocritical universalist version: it is all crimes against civilians that must be condemned, the Holocaust is one among others. Or: the Palestinians are suffering a genocide at least as bad as the Holocaust. Or again: it is the Zionists who are responsible for the Holocaust, which allowed them to steal land from the Arabs. And finally, the worst, or the most honest: yes the Holocaust took place, it was well-deserved, but the Nazis unfortunately couldn't finish the job! All these arguments are commonly expressed, today they try to turn the Holocaust into a weapon against Israel and the Jews.
The survivors feared that the crime would be minimized, but could they ever have imagined that it would be denied, turned inside-out or glorified in the world forged after the victory?
This is how we understand the isolation felt today by an Israeli people threatened with destruction by fanatic and ruthless Iranian leaders, who deny the previous Holocaust and prepare to commit the next one, in the name of their own sovereign national freedom and of the privileges that they assume under an Islam that they have captured and whose message they have sullied.
Luckily, as urgency rises, the Israelis must know that some are not blind. France is one of the first among those countries maintaining a lucid and unwavering approach, when the temptation to complacency is strong.
Freedom,
Freedom in its most elementary sense, that which is denied the French held hostage around the world, our compatriots: two journalists in Afghanistan, a Frenchman in Mali, Clotilde Reiss in Iran, and of course Gilad Shalit in Gaza whom I name in this room for the third year already...
EQUALITY
After liberty, equality
Equality of rights is what Revolutionary France was the first to offer the Jews, by making them French citizens like the rest, bringing a spectacular end to four centuries of expulsions from the territory, and an even longer era of humiliations, degradations and persecutions.
The Jews became "fous de la République", "crazy for the Republic", and remained so during the Dreyfus affair. Vichy France tragically failed them, for a long time they didn't want to believe it, despite the Statute, the abolition of the Crémieux decree, and the roundups. The Republic eased the wounds of history, opening up these events and crimes to shared memory.
France, by emancipating the Jews, showed that it was unconcerned with ethnic origin and religious beliefs, that our country is based on an egalitarian social contract and not a mythical ethnic origin. This for me is the core idea.
The French identity is neither a patchwork of communities, nor an entity frozen in a menhir. In fact, the father of Asterix himself is a Jew of Polish origin.
I would like to call your attention, Mr. Prime Minister, to a situation experienced as humiliating, sometimes as an aspersion on their identity, by some of our fellow citizens and among them Jews born in France of a naturalized or stateless father or mother, who must prove on their own that the administration did not commit an error in according French citizenship to their parent...
Is there, however, discrimination against Jews in France? No. Neither in employment, nor in access to goods and services. There are, for certain examinations or certain meals in public schools, some issues relating to religious edicts. But Jews are not discriminated against as much as Muslims or Blacks. And we are deeply opposed to all forms of discrimination.
Therefore, equality between men and women is an essential requirement of our society. The burkha is contrary to the values of the Republic, not only because it is imposed on women, but also because we communicate with others through our faces.
Is this to say that in terms of equality, all is well for the Jews of France? Not entirely.
Because there is anti-Semitism.
The Nazis have not disappeared. The day of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, some thirty tombs were vandalized and defiled in the Jewish cemetery of Cronenbourg in Strasbourg. The Minister of the Interior visited the site to show his determination to combat such hateful expressions of anti-Semitism.
Several times this year, Muslim tombs and mosques were defiled, just as Sunday in Crépy in Valois, Catholic tombs in the Tarn region as well.
I quote the chief Rabbi of Strasbourg: "This gratuitous and ominous hatred of the dead, expresses hatred of man and of humanity, and self-hatred by the perpetrators themselves."
I will say again what I have said so often before: France is not an anti-Semitic country, but there is anti-Semitism in France. Those who never leave their nice neighborhoods may never experience it. But among the Jews who are not so lucky, there are those who have contact with it every day.
A 13-year-old child was hit on the public school grounds and lost consciousness. A complaint was lodged, this act is added to the 830 anti-Semitic events of the year 2009, twice the number of the preceding year, inventoried by the Jewish community protection service, which I laud for its calm and efficient professionalism, working together with the Ministry of the Interior.
We learn that this aggression was preceded by months of daily humiliations and insults, which went unreported. "Having a gas today?" "Shall we get you some petits fours?” [Translator’s note: literally "little ovens"], etc. The identity of the attackers is known, but it is the Jewish child who has to leave the school and, for safety, attend a religious school.
Is this not discrimination? Is this not a violation of equal rights?
How many such attacks are there, not accounted for in our statistics? We call it stupidity, because the perpetrators don't know that long word, anti-Semitism. But who says you need to read a dictionary to hate the Jews?
Anti-Semitism is not the sole explanation for the murder of Ilan Halimi, but to disregard the anti-Semitic dimension of this homicide would be irresponsible. We hope that the judgment on appeal next October will be open to the public, so that this trial may serve an educational goal.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
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