French riots are not a ‘Jewish problem’

PARIS — Some media are calling it a “suburban intifada,” but the rioting that is rocking France is a national problem, not a Jewish one.

That appears to be the consensus of French Jews, who are simultaneously alarmed at the widespread violence – mostly of Muslim youths – in suburbs around the country and relieved that Jews have not been directly targeted, as they were at the height of the Palestinian intifada.

“Anti-Semitism in these neighbourhoods has drastically declined over the last six months or so,” said Sammy Ghozlan, who heads the Office of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism. He is also the president of the Council of Jewish Communities of Seine St-Denis, the Paris suburb where much of the violence, which began at the end of October, has taken place.

The earlier violence against Jews “was just a pretext for these groups of people to violently express their dissatisfaction with their lot in life. Now, the anger that was being channelled toward the Jews is instead being directed at the French state. Instead of Jews, they’re attacking the police,” said Ghozlan, a former police officer.

He added that unlike in earlier rebellions, “today, there’s an element of Islamic fundamentalism in it which is disturbing.”

Many of the rioters are descended from North African immigrants, but local Islamic groups have condemned the violence, and analysts have been quick to point out that some of the perpetrators of the arson and beatings come from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Jewish organizations in France and abroad are keeping relatively quiet about the situation. CRIF, the umbrella group of secular Jewish organizations, declined to comment on the violence, saying this is a French problem with no link to the Jewish community.

The Jewish community has been affected by some incidents, but these are seen as part of the larger acts of violence.

Two synagogues have been damaged: on Nov. 3, a Molotov cocktail blackened the door of a synagogue in the suburb of Pierrefitte, and the next evening, a Friday night, a device was detonated outside the synagogue in the suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin telephoned the president of the CRIF, Roger Cukierman, after these attacks.

Cars were burned in central Paris, not far from the Rue des Rosiers, a street lined with Jewish merchants, restaurants and synagogues. In Aulnay-sous-Bois, the storefront of a small Jewish rug merchant was burned; in Aubervilliers, a fabric warehouse also believed to be owned by Jews, was burned.

Despite the relative silence, the Jewish community remains wary.

Rabbi Yossi Gorodetsky, an American Chabad representative in Paris, said: “We just don’t want to see this turn into a problem of anti-Semitism. They’re very clear about why they’re angry and who they’re angry with.”

“The rioters are not distinguishing between hospitals, schools or synagogues,” said Philip Carmel, international relations director for the Conference of European Rabbis. The violence has also affected mosques and churches as well. At the beginning of the riots, a mosque was damaged when a bomb containing tear gas was thrown through the window.

“The anti-Semitism we’ve been seeing over the past few years was a warning sign for these events,” Carmel said.

“It’s not that the French are anti-Semitic,” he said. “It’s that there is something deeply wrong with French society in its failure to integrate its North African youth.

“France has alienated 10 per cent of its population,” he said, “and now the government is finding it has to deal with their needs.”

Groups such as SOS-Racisme, which speaks out against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, have expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s response to the violence.

“We are astonished at the insufficiency of the measures taken by the government to curb the violence,” SOS-Racisme said.

“For over 20 years, SOS-Racisme has warned of the dangers of ghettoization and of the social and political consequences of racial discrimination,” the group’s president, Dominique Sopo, said in a recent statement.

“Words are not enough to change the everyday existence of this part of the population. What they need, what they want, particularly among the adolescents, are strong acts of public power.”

Many groups, including SOS-Racisme, have criticized the media’s insistence on comparing the riots to the Palestinian uprisings.

Rabbi Gabriel Farhi, with the Liberal Movement of French Jews, wrote on a Jewish community website that while the term “intifada” might seem applicable from a certain point of view, the Palestinian uprisings against Israel are much more difficult and complicated than those of the French suburbs.

The political consequences of the riots may be grave for Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has received much of the blame for the escalation of the violence after reportedly referring to the rioters as “scum.”

Sarkozy and de Villepin are considered to be political rivals for the presidency in 2007.

“If Sarkozy resigns,” as many have called on him to do, “the rioters will feel that they have won,” Ghozlan said.