France

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Hate crimes targeting Jews in France have surged in 2018

11.11.2018

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe reveals that the number of documented hate crimes against Jews in the first nine months of 2018 has increased by more than 69 percent.

French Israelis light memorial candles as they gather at Paris Square in Jerusalem in a demonstration against anti-Semitism in France following the murder of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Jewish woman in Paris this week. March 28, 2018. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90.

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Reversing his decision, Macron decides not to honor Vichy leader Pétain

09.11.2018

“Nothing will obscure or make us forget the Pétain who betrayed, collaborated, and infamously signed and implemented the decree on the status of the Jews,” said French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux.

French President Emmanuel Macron. Credit: Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons.

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Macron plans to honor Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France in World War II

08.11.2018

The move has led to an immediate backlash from Jewish groups, political opponents and social-media users.

French President Emmanuel Macron heads to the reviewing stand for the annual Bastille Day military parade in Paris on July 14, 2017. Credit: Department of Defense Photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique Pineiro.

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Manfred Gerstenfeld01.11.2018

France prepares a superfluous peace plan

For the French government, the country’s economic problems are far bigger than issues of anti-Semitism. Both seem insolvable.

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Security increased in France around Jewish synagogues

Yossi LempkowiczEuropean Jewish Press28.10.2018

After the shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 people dead, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner assured that security would be increased in France near Jewish places of worship.

The Jo Goldenberg Restaurant in the Jewish quarter of Paris, which was attacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1982. France has issued arrest warrants for the perpetrators more than three decades later. Credit: David Monniaux via Wikimedia Commons.

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French minister ‘totally mobilized’ against anti-Semitic acts in universities

Yossi LempkowiczEuropean Jewish Press24.10.2018

France’s Higher Education Minister Frédérique Vidal brought together key players in the fight against racism and anti-Semitism following the proliferation of tags, graffiti and anti-Semitic expressions in recent weeks in several institutions of higher education.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, visit at the synagogue in Strasbourg, France, on June 30, 2017. Photo by Kobi Gideon/GPO.

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France bestows its highest award to Nazi-hunter couple

14.10.2018

Famed French Nazi-hunters Serge Klarsfeld and his German wife, Beate, received the highest honors last week in a ceremony led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Klarsfelds in Jerusalem in 2007. Source: The Klarsfeld Foundation.

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Documentary on Gaza by French public television ‘will incite hatred against Jews’

Yossi LempkowiczEJP12.10.2018

Members of the Jewish community in France have expressed their deep concern regarding the broadcast by French public-television Channel France 2 of a report on Gaza that contains a clear anti-Israeli bias.

View of the Gaza Strip as seen from the Israeli side of the border on Aug. 9, 2018. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

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French say ‘Non’ to Islamist performer at Bataclan

Abigail R. EsmanIPT12.10.2018

On Nov. 13, 2015, a series of Islamist terrorist attacks shook Paris: 130 people were killed and hundreds others injured in coordinated shootings and a suicide bombing that hit the Bataclan concert hall, the Stade de France stadium, and several bars and restaurants, all in the name of the Islamic State.

The Le Petit Cambodge restaurant—site of one of six coordinated Islamist terror attacks in Paris on Friday—with a makeshift memorial of flowers and blood staining the ground on the day after the attacks. Credit: Maya-Anaïs Yataghène via Wikimedia Commons.

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Besa Center

Tsilla Hershco07.10.2018

France’s fight against Islamic radicalization: The writing is still on the wall

French President Emmanuel Macron inherited the complicated problem of Muslim radicalization, which for years had been either swept entirely under the carpet or inefficiently dealt with.

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French Jewish MP gets death-threat letter in envelope with unknown white powder

Ariel Kahana, Dan Lavie and Israel Hayom Staff28.08.2018

“It’s sad and disconcerting to be in a situation where a member of the French parliament receives death threats because he is Jewish and a friend of Israel,” said French Jewish Parliament member Meyer Habib.

An Orthodox man in the Jewish quarters of Le Marais in Paris on Aug. 13, 2017. Photo by Serge Attal/Flash90.

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Ben Cohen19.07.2018

France’s reputation is at stake again over the murder of Sarah Halimi

France’s leaders should expect to undergo the trial of international public scrutiny if this sadistic, anti-Semitic killer is sent to a psychiatric hospital instead of answering for his crimes.

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Suspect in anti-Semitic murder of French woman found unfit to stand trial

Dan LavieIsrael Hayom13.07.2018

Psychiatrists say Kobili Traore, who allegedly killed neighbor Sarah Halimi in Paris because she was Jewish, is not responsible for his actions • French Jews outraged, say evaluation designed to avoid trial and obscure anti-Semitic motive.

French President Emmanuel Macron has demanded that France’s judiciary “bring total clarity around the death of Sarah Halimi.” Credit: Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons.

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The Sephardi Perspective

Lyn Julius11.07.2018

A double whammy for the Jews of France

France does not want to admit that its terrorism problem has ideological roots. It prefers to blame economic grievances, despair or mental illness.

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French-funded NGOs: The radicalization of human rights

NGO Monitor05.07.2018

The French Agency for Development supports French organizations that disseminate blatant anti-Israeli rhetoric, and that are active in prohibited discriminatory boycott campaigns against Israel

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a press conference at the United Nations on Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: U.N. Photo/Kim Haughton.