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French Jews attacked in wake of Mideast crisis

By Bruce Crumley in Paris

(TIME.com) -- Such scenes have not been witnessed in France since the 1930s and '40s: synagogues fire-bombed, Jewish-owned businesses defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti and protest marches studded with banners urging "Death to Jews." Infuriated by events in the Middle East, young French thugs are attacking Jewish targets. The number of anti-Semitic incidents has reached almost 100 in just two weeks. With similar assaults on Jews taking place in England and the U.S., some Jewish leaders wonder if modern anti-Semitism hasn't mutated into an exported "intifadeh."

The attacks on France's 750,000 Jews have caused consternation around the world — and considerable outcry in Israel. Since the Middle East peace process imploded, over 90 cases of vandalism, arson and verbal aggression have been reported by Jewish individuals, business owners and religious organizations. In most cases the attacks have involved bungled fire-bombings of synagogues, resulting in minor damage. Only one suburban Paris synagogue suffered serious wreckage. Jewish-owned businesses have been vandalized, and Jewish schools have reported cases of students being verbally abused and threatened as they left the grounds.

Prodded by demands from Jewish leaders for protection against the rising tide of aggression, France's Interior Ministry has stationed over 1,500 police officers around synagogues and in Jewish neighborhoods to discourage further attacks, and is considering requests to deploy military reinforcements.

Despite the large number of assaults, police have managed so far to make just 10 arrests — all the suspects are poor, young, alienated and angry Frenchmen of Arab descent. That demographic group is particular to France, and could explain why the violence has flared here. "They are the people French integration has failed," says political analyst Alain Duhamel. "These are poorly educated French youths without jobs, with no hope or future, who feel shut out of a France their immigrant parents came to as a promised land. They feel utterly victimized by French society, and identify with what they see as the virtuous anger of their 'Palestinian brothers.'"

"It's foremost an identity problem — their anti-Semitism is an afterthought," says Emmanuel Weintraub, a board member with the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions. "The people attacking Jews in France today were born and raised French, but feel they've been denied and denigrated for being ethnic Arabs. They identify with the anger of Palestinians they see on their TVs and seek to mimic it by punishing 'their Jews.'"

Leaders of France's Muslim community — estimated at around 5 million — have denounced and discouraged the attacks, but stress the perpetrators in no way represent the nation's generally respectful, law-abiding ethnic Arab population. Weintraub agrees, noting that the assailants seem to be temporarily associating their habit of criminal behavior with the Palestinian cause. "Once the conflict in Israel ends," he predicts, "these people will return to petty crime."

But by then the damage may have been done. Opinion polls show 75% of French respondents fear relations between France's Jewish and Muslim communities have already been negatively impacted and will worsen if the Israeli-Palestinian clashes continue.

Copyright © 2000 Time Inc.