“We have the traditional anti-Semitism of the extreme right, we have the phenomenon of immigrants from North Africa who, feeling solidarity with the Palestinians on the one hand and on the other hand feeling rejected by the French national community from an economic point of view, are looking for scapegoats. (…) Add the climate created by the widespread anti-Semitism expressed on the far left of the political spectrum.” According to Roger Cukierman, political leaders are clearly fighting anti-Semitism, but he is worried by the indifference of public opinion. Taking as an example the case of the murder of Ilan Halimi, he insists: “2000 year-old prejudices remain very strong (Jew=money= power). The Halimi tragedy is a case in point: some thirty people took part in this “operation”, coming from different backgrounds, representing the social fabric of this new France. People of African, West Indian, North African, Portuguese and native French origin. Among them, while a young man was being tortured for three long weeks, not one of these young people felt the need to do an act of civic duty and compassion by calling the police, even anonymously.” The President of CRIF indicates that he has asked the President of the Republic to “organize a national campaign to fight anti-Semitism and racism.”
Speaking of the dialogue groups set up by CRIF together with the Muslim and Black communities, Roger Cukierman says: “I wish to maintain the widest possible dialogue because I believe there is a very real danger lurking here for the entire national community.” Questioned about the competition that seems to exist among those seeking to defend the memory of suffering sustained by people groups, the CRIF representative answers quite clearly that “such competition has no reason to exist.” “We feel a lot of sympathy for the victims of all genocides. (…) When people say to me: things are being overdone for the Jews, and not sufficiently for the others, my reaction is to say: we should be doing as much for the others.”
Finally, coming back to the situation in the Near East, the president of CRIF considers that France’s attitude toward Israel has changed. This change is principally the consequence of a series of events, such as the substitution of Yassir Arafat by a man capable of dialogue, the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and also the assassination of Rafic Hariri. Despite all this, “there is still plenty of ground to cover,” adds Roger Cukierman, who recalls that Israel’s entrance in the organization of French-speaking nations is still being blocked.
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