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An endangered equilibrium

Repercussions of the renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip have been felt across Europe. Particularly in France, where several synagogues were set on fire, tensions run high between Europe's biggest Muslim and Jewish communities. Many now warn of a rise in anti-Semitism throughout Europe.

"Every time the Israel-Palestine conflict flares up the number of anti-Semitic acts committed soars. Unfortunately the Gaza war is no exception", commented La Libre Belgique on 10 January 2009. As tensions grow in the Middle East they also increase between the Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. Such tensions hit France particularly hard, as the Swiss daily Le Temps stressed on 10 January: "France has the largest Jewish and Muslim communities on the continent, and it's here that tensions are at their highest."

People join for a peaceful gathering in Paris, organized by French group "La Paix Maintenant" (Peace Now), January 2009. Photo: AP/ Thibault Camus

Just over half a million Jews live in France, while the country's Muslim community counts around five million members. "The idea that the country in Europe with the largest Jewish and Muslim communities could escape tensions arising from the Middle East conflict was simply absurd", wrote Jean Daniel, director of the Nouvel Observateur, on 14 January. For this reason fears ran high that the conflict could spill over onto French soil. Richard Pasquier, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), stated in an interview with Le Figaro on 5 January that "this conflict must not be imported into France".

Avoiding sentimental confusion

Raphaël Haddad, chairman of the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF), also voiced his fears in Le Monde on 12 January: "Defaced businesses, attacks on synagogues, Jews as the target of insults, threats and beatings. There they are again, the worst moments of the turn of the millenia. ... Until only recently no one would have believed that such an intense wave of anti-Semitism could break out again. During the second Intifada in 2001 it took 400 acts of aggression before a new outbreak of anti-Semitism was recognised. ... We don't want to wait for someone to be killed to make an appeal for peace in the Republic." Yves Thréard of Le Figaro, by contrast, argued on 13 January that the battle lines were not at all as clear cut as many believed: "People think that the Jews will unconditionally side with Israel and the Muslims with the Palestinians, as if they were forced to take sides. This is an erroneous, simplified and absurd view which should be given no currency whatsoever. … It is time that the state, the parties, the so-called community organisations and the media shouldered their responsibility to avoid any confusion of sentiment, emotion or opinion."

Active pedagogy

According to sociologist Esther Benbessa, the solution to the problem could lie in education and information: "Instead of playing at being pyromaniacs we should respond with active pedagogy, even if it is just explaining to the students what a Jew, and Israeli, an immigrant, an Arab and a Muslim are. Let's open youth clubs - for these very young people who today are at daggers drawn." In recent months the media had reported optimistically on the rapprochement between the Jewish and Muslim institutions in France. The website Rue89.com feared on 4 January these efforts may come to nothing: "As the Gaza conflict intensifies, the equilibrium that had developed over the past months between representatives of Muslim and Jewish institutions is being disrupted."

Elif Kayi

Elif Kayi, born in 1979 in Dole (F), is a euro|topics correspondent and lives in Montpellier. She works as a media analyst and freelance journalist ...
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Nina Müller

Nina Müller, born in 1978 in Waiblingen, is a euro|topics correspondent and lives in Palavas-les-Flots. She has worked as media analyst and freelance journalist since ...
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Further articles on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » International Relations, » Minorities, » France
More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » International Relations, » Minorities, » France