France most anti-Semitic
2004-01-25 17:29
Jerusalem - Israel said on Sunday that France had the dubious distinction of being the country with the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the world last year.
"The situation for Jews in France is very problematic," said Natan Sharansky, Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, adding that the number of anti-Semitic events recorded in France had doubled in 2003.
He said 47% of all such incidents registered in western Europe took place in France, and urged immediate action by the authorities in Paris.
Sharansky presented statistics showing that the overall number of anti-Semitic incidents across the globe fell by almost half last year to 983 from 1 979 in 2002. By contrast, the number in France jumped to 141 in 2003 from 77.
"The French authorities have at their disposal one of the world's best legal systems for dealing with racism and antisemitism, and they must apply it and take immediate measures," he said.
There are estimated to be around 500 000 Jews in France and around five million Muslims in an overall population of 60m.
Two weeks ago, French President Jacques Chirac and other French MPs met with a delegation of Israeli journalists to discuss allegations of anti-Semitism.
Media reports said the French leader assured them the authorities would do everything in their power to fight anti-Semitism, and declared that "all agression against the Jews was an agression against France".
In November, Chirac ordered his government to draw up a monthly record of attacks on Jewish targets as part of its response to a growing climate of anti-Semitism in many high-immigration urban areas.
Jewish leaders have been warning for more than a year of a growth of anti-Semitic tensions, especially in suburban areas of major French cities where Jews and Muslim immigrants from North Africa often live side by side.
- AFP