France Wants Sharon to Explain His Call for Jews to Flee
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
PARIS, July 19 - France to Ariel Sharon: You should keep quiet.
When Israel's prime minister urged the Jews of France on Sunday to flee immediately to Israel to escape anti-Semitism at home, the reaction was swift, angry and unified. French officials, lawmakers, commentators and Jewish leaders all told Mr. Sharon that he was out of line.
The office of President Jacques Chirac issued a statement on Monday saying Mr. Sharon would not be welcome in France until he explained himself.
"France has asked for an explanation following Mr. Sharon's declaration," the statement from Élysée Palace said. The government, it said, "has let it be known that from today an eventual visit by the Israeli prime minister to Paris, for which no date had been set, would not be considered until such an explanation is forthcoming."
The lead front-page headline of the center-right newspaper Le Figaro on Monday screamed, "Sharon's Insult to France." A front-page editorial in the newspaper France-Soir declared that the Israeli leader "is losing his marbles."
French politicians rushed to the airwaves to condemn his declaration. Mr. Sharon "missed a good opportunity to keep quiet,'' Jean-Louis Debré, the president of the National Assembly, told Europe 1 radio on Monday. "These words are inadmissible, unacceptable and, furthermore, irresponsible.''
French Jewish leaders also voiced strong disapproval. "He doesn't have the right to decide for us,'' said Théo Klein, honorary president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or CRIF, an umbrella group, on France 2 television on Sunday.
The emigration of French Jews to Israel is a subject of heated debate. France is a secular republic. It does not count its citizens according to religion or ethnicity, and there are no reliable government figures on how many Jews move from France to Israel.
According to the Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental Israeli body responsible for settling immigrants, about 2,000 French Jews settled in Israel in 2002 and 2,000 more the next year, a doubling from 1,000 for each of the previous three years.
Some French officials and Jewish leaders contend that the spike was cyclical and that it was not necessarily a trend. In fact, some prominent French Jews even resent being counted and identified as Jews, saying that they are citizens of France first.
What complicates matters is that there is no love lost between the Israeli and French governments these days.
During his visit last month to the West Bank, France's new foreign minister, Michel Barnier, enraged the Israelis after he stayed overnight in Ramallah with Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, despite moves by many other governments to isolate him.
During the visit, Mr. Barnier called for an end to Israel's confinement of Mr. Arafat in his headquarters, calling it "undignified.''
Mr. Sharon was quoted afterward by a senior Israeli official as saying that he was "very disappointed'' by Mr. Barnier's visit, which he said showed France's "unfriendly behavior" toward Israel.
An editorial in the daily Le Monde on Monday afternoon suggested that Mr. Sharon's declaration about French Jews was motivated by a desire to "discredit'' France and keep Europe out of any resolution of the Middle East crisis.
The latest firestorm started with Mr. Sharon's remarks after a speech to American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday that the population of France today was about 10 percent Muslim, which accounted for the rise of the "wildest anti-Semitism.''
"If I have to advise our brothers in France, I'll tell them one thing: Move to Israel, as soon as possible,'' he said in response to a question. "I say that to Jews all around the world, but there, I think it's a must and they have to move immediately."
Shortly afterward, the French Foreign Ministry called his words "unacceptable'' and demanded an official explanation.
On Monday, the official French criticism of Mr. Sharon became more pointed, as French officials defended their policies to eradicate anti-Semitism and other forms of racism.
"Certainly France today is the country with the strictest legislation dealing with all problems of racism," Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie told RTL radio.
In Israel, Avi Pazner, the government spokesman, played down Mr. Sharon's declaration. "Sharon was misunderstood,'' he told Europe 1 radio, adding that Mr. Sharon "felt that French Jews, like all Jews in the world, belong in Israel, and he invited French Jews to come.''
In the face of an increase in racist acts in France, the French government, from President Chirac on down, has arduously sought to condemn all acts of racism and anti-Semitism.
The rush to judgment is so swift that sometimes condemnations come even when the accusations turn out to be false. At the annual Bastille Day celebration last Wednesday, for example, Mr. Chirac defended his condemnation of a reported anti-Semitic attack by young Arabs and Africans of a young French mother and child on a suburban commuter train, even after it turned out to be a hoax.
The confession by the woman that she had made up the story has provoked soul-searching in France about why everyone from the president and the police to newspaper reporters got it so wrong.
On Sunday, France marked the 62nd anniversary of the day when nearly 13,000 Jews were taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium in Paris before being deported to German death camps. In 1995, at the start of his first term in office, Mr. Chirac became the first president to acknowledge publicly France's role in the deportations and to apologize for it.
A number of participants in the anniversary event used the occasion to condemn the current atmosphere of racism in France. Simone Veil, a former minister and president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, said the worst aspect about the recent hoax was that it "appeared credible.'' But she also expressed sympathy for young Arabs and Africans who "have been stigmatized once again.''
According to France's Interior Ministry, there have been 135 anti-Semitic acts in the first half of 2004 compared with 127 acts for all of 2003.
By unofficial counts, France is home to about five million Muslims and 500,000 to 600,000 Jews, the largest Jewish population in the diaspora except for the United States.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
PARIS, July 19 - France to Ariel Sharon: You should keep quiet.
When Israel's prime minister urged the Jews of France on Sunday to flee immediately to Israel to escape anti-Semitism at home, the reaction was swift, angry and unified. French officials, lawmakers, commentators and Jewish leaders all told Mr. Sharon that he was out of line.
The office of President Jacques Chirac issued a statement on Monday saying Mr. Sharon would not be welcome in France until he explained himself.
"France has asked for an explanation following Mr. Sharon's declaration," the statement from Élysée Palace said. The government, it said, "has let it be known that from today an eventual visit by the Israeli prime minister to Paris, for which no date had been set, would not be considered until such an explanation is forthcoming."
The lead front-page headline of the center-right newspaper Le Figaro on Monday screamed, "Sharon's Insult to France." A front-page editorial in the newspaper France-Soir declared that the Israeli leader "is losing his marbles."
French politicians rushed to the airwaves to condemn his declaration. Mr. Sharon "missed a good opportunity to keep quiet,'' Jean-Louis Debré, the president of the National Assembly, told Europe 1 radio on Monday. "These words are inadmissible, unacceptable and, furthermore, irresponsible.''
French Jewish leaders also voiced strong disapproval. "He doesn't have the right to decide for us,'' said Théo Klein, honorary president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or CRIF, an umbrella group, on France 2 television on Sunday.
The emigration of French Jews to Israel is a subject of heated debate. France is a secular republic. It does not count its citizens according to religion or ethnicity, and there are no reliable government figures on how many Jews move from France to Israel.
According to the Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental Israeli body responsible for settling immigrants, about 2,000 French Jews settled in Israel in 2002 and 2,000 more the next year, a doubling from 1,000 for each of the previous three years.
Some French officials and Jewish leaders contend that the spike was cyclical and that it was not necessarily a trend. In fact, some prominent French Jews even resent being counted and identified as Jews, saying that they are citizens of France first.
What complicates matters is that there is no love lost between the Israeli and French governments these days.
During his visit last month to the West Bank, France's new foreign minister, Michel Barnier, enraged the Israelis after he stayed overnight in Ramallah with Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, despite moves by many other governments to isolate him.
During the visit, Mr. Barnier called for an end to Israel's confinement of Mr. Arafat in his headquarters, calling it "undignified.''
Mr. Sharon was quoted afterward by a senior Israeli official as saying that he was "very disappointed'' by Mr. Barnier's visit, which he said showed France's "unfriendly behavior" toward Israel.
An editorial in the daily Le Monde on Monday afternoon suggested that Mr. Sharon's declaration about French Jews was motivated by a desire to "discredit'' France and keep Europe out of any resolution of the Middle East crisis.
The latest firestorm started with Mr. Sharon's remarks after a speech to American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday that the population of France today was about 10 percent Muslim, which accounted for the rise of the "wildest anti-Semitism.''
"If I have to advise our brothers in France, I'll tell them one thing: Move to Israel, as soon as possible,'' he said in response to a question. "I say that to Jews all around the world, but there, I think it's a must and they have to move immediately."
Shortly afterward, the French Foreign Ministry called his words "unacceptable'' and demanded an official explanation.
On Monday, the official French criticism of Mr. Sharon became more pointed, as French officials defended their policies to eradicate anti-Semitism and other forms of racism.
"Certainly France today is the country with the strictest legislation dealing with all problems of racism," Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie told RTL radio.
In Israel, Avi Pazner, the government spokesman, played down Mr. Sharon's declaration. "Sharon was misunderstood,'' he told Europe 1 radio, adding that Mr. Sharon "felt that French Jews, like all Jews in the world, belong in Israel, and he invited French Jews to come.''
In the face of an increase in racist acts in France, the French government, from President Chirac on down, has arduously sought to condemn all acts of racism and anti-Semitism.
The rush to judgment is so swift that sometimes condemnations come even when the accusations turn out to be false. At the annual Bastille Day celebration last Wednesday, for example, Mr. Chirac defended his condemnation of a reported anti-Semitic attack by young Arabs and Africans of a young French mother and child on a suburban commuter train, even after it turned out to be a hoax.
The confession by the woman that she had made up the story has provoked soul-searching in France about why everyone from the president and the police to newspaper reporters got it so wrong.
On Sunday, France marked the 62nd anniversary of the day when nearly 13,000 Jews were taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium in Paris before being deported to German death camps. In 1995, at the start of his first term in office, Mr. Chirac became the first president to acknowledge publicly France's role in the deportations and to apologize for it.
A number of participants in the anniversary event used the occasion to condemn the current atmosphere of racism in France. Simone Veil, a former minister and president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, said the worst aspect about the recent hoax was that it "appeared credible.'' But she also expressed sympathy for young Arabs and Africans who "have been stigmatized once again.''
According to France's Interior Ministry, there have been 135 anti-Semitic acts in the first half of 2004 compared with 127 acts for all of 2003.
By unofficial counts, France is home to about five million Muslims and 500,000 to 600,000 Jews, the largest Jewish population in the diaspora except for the United States.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
posted by Rui at 5:25 da tarde
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