Antisemitism isn’t the business of Jews, it’s everyone’s business.
So says a manifesto denouncing “a new antisemitism marked by Islamist radicalisation.”
The manifesto has been signed by over 300 French dignitaries and stars.
The manifesto was drafted by Philippe Val, a former editor at Charlie Hebdo, after a number of Jewish murders.
It says the “fight against this democratic failure … antisemitism” should become a national cause before it’s too late. “Before France is no longer France.”
The signatories condemn what they called a “quiet ethnic purging” which they say is driven by rising Islamist radicalism, particularly in working-class neighbourhoods.
They accuse the media of remaining silent on the matter.
“Why the silence?” asks the manifesto.
“It is because radical Islam is considered exclusively by some of the elite French parties as an expression of social revolt…
“… because the old antisemitism of the extreme Right is added to the antisemitism of the radical Left, which has found anti-Zionism as their alibi for transforming the executioners of Jews as victims in society.”
The manifesto also says “In our recent history [since 2006] 11 Jews have been assassinated – and some tortured – by radical Islamists because they were Jewish.”
The dead include three children and a teacher who were shot at a Jewish school in 2012 and four people shot at a Jewish supermarket in Paris in 2015.
A year ago a Jewish woman in her sixties was thrown out of the window of her Paris flat by a neighbour shouting, “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).
The most recent attack took place last month when an 85-year old Jewish woman was stabbed and set alight. The crime is being treated as antisemitic.
Thirty-thousand people marched in her memory.
France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, says he is determined to fight antisemitism.
During the past 20 years, France’s Jewish community has been leaving the country for Israel.
The manifesto says this is partly because of antisemitism in predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods.
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