France, the burden of anti-Semitism

Is France an anti-Semitic country? The clamorous case of Dieudonné, a sinister comedian specialized in provocations of various kinds, notably anti-Semitic speech, conveying contempt towards the victims of the Shoah, brings to the fore the serious question of the role of anti-Semitism across French society. Observers agree that anti-Semitism is a serious problem in France. It was the ideological foundation of a large national political party, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National, although today, under the lead of Le Pen’s daughter Marine, it became more cautious to this regard. All Jewish leaders, whether religious – the Great Rabbinate – or secular such as the CRIF – (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France), report daily physical and verbal attacks against Jews wearing kippahs in public places, along with acts of vandalism against synagogues. France is the only European country where people died because they were Jewish. Ilan Halimi was abducted, tortured for over twenty days and killed by a gang whose main motivation was hatred against Jews. In 2012, in Toulouse, several people were killed in an attack against a Jewish school, including several children. The scope of anti-Semitism in France was highlighted in a survey carried out by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights, notably the situation of two European countries is reason for concern:  France and Hungary. Why France? The survey established a link between the endless conflict in the Middle East and the presence in France of a large Muslim community, which tends to identify itself in the Palestinian cause and associating the Jewish community with Israel. Anti-Zionism is thus the façade of anti-Semitism, found in various extreme left-wing environments, among the Green party, and at times also among Catholics who make an instrumental use of Israeli politics to nurture old-dated prejudice and rancor. Indeed, French anti-Semitism isn’t only fed by international current events. It is rooted in the distant past. France is the country of the “affaire Dreyfus”, the homeland of Édouard Drumont, the founder of the Ligue Nationale Antisémite (1890), of the newspaper “La Libre Parole” (1892), of the author of “La France juive” (1886) one of the most popular books published at the end of the 19th century, with over 200 editions until 2014. France is also the Country of Charles Maurras and Action Française, of Vichy and of the government’s collaboration in the deportation of the Jews to extermination camps. It is the country that gave birth to the first holocaust-deniers. It can be said that France has various anti-Semitic networks that are all active today. The Dieudonné case brings anti-Semitism in the limelight, while raising the question of the freedom of expression. It gives renewed media visibility to anti-Semitism, that saw a resurgence on the Internet with the spread of violently anti-Semitic websites. At the same time, ongoing public debate is structured along the theme of freedom of expression. Can just any idea be legitimately expressed? Can anyone be ridiculed? To attempt an answer, whether positive or negative, would mean to fall into a trap, which is precisely what people like Dieudonné – who thrive on scandals – aim at. At a time marked by strong individualism, when every opinion has its value, all authorities, whether civil, religious or cultural, have the moral duty to set the limits of freedom of opinion, to set the boundaries beyond which freedom of speech become verbal attacks – which as we all know, pave the way to physical attacks and hatred against a large part of the population. In the present times we cannot act as if Auschwitz had never existed or as if the grounds of the Shoah had not been prepared with decades of hatred and anti-Semitic speech, which on the long run disarm human consciences. It is the responsibility of policy-makers to be brave enough to remind us, to demand that justice does its course. Laws are there to prevent the public expression of hatred, thereby imposing shared principles of coexistence.