Israel Matzav

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Is this the final chapter for Jews in France?

It's come to this: The leader of the Jewish community in Marseille, France, has advised his constituents not to walk around outside with kipot (skullcaps) on their heads.

The president of the Marseille Israelite Consistory, Zvi Ammar, said that it was an "exceptional decision".

"Life is more sacred than anything else. We are now forced to hide a little bit," he told the AFP, adding that the move made him "sick to the stomach".

The warning comes just one day after a teacher in his thirties was attacked by a teen wielding a machete.

The teacher escaped with only minor injuries. His attacker, aged 15, was caught soon after fleeing and arrested.

The teen later claimed to have been acting in the name of Daesh, the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

“He said several times he was acting in the name of Isis, because Muslims in France were dishonouring Islam and French soldiers were protecting Jews,” said Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin.

Also today, a Jewish communal leader in Paris was found stabbed to death in his apartment.

A Jewish councilman was found dead in his apartment on Tuesday morning, prompting French media speculation of a racially motivated killing.

Alain Ghozland of the Parisian suburb of Créteil was found by his brother, who checked in on the city councillor after he failed to show in synagogue the previous evening.

While a police source who spoke with Metro News admitted that it was “too early to know the cause of death,” Ghozland was reportedly found with stab wounds and bruising. His apartment appeared to have been ransacked and his car was missing from its spot outside.

The victim, whose father helped found the local Jewish cultural association, was active in Jewish affairs and his death has shaken his coreligionists, according to the French newspaper.

He was described by the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF), the umbrella organization representing French Jewry, as “a prominent leader of the local Jewish Community.”

“People are upset. They do not know what to think and ask a lot of questions,” one relative was quoted as saying.

And last week marked the anniversary of the attack on the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris, which was the icing on the cake of a week in which mass murder was committed in the name of Islam at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Sorry but I don't understand why the flow of immigration from France to Israel isn't a wave. Why would any Jew want to stay there?

Labels: Charlie Hebdo, French anti-Semitism, Islamic terrorism, Marseille, Paris, Paris terror attacks

Thursday, June 16, 2011

French pulling out of flotilla of fools

It looks like France may not be participating in the flotilla of fools scheduled for later this month.

The French ship – one of 15 participating in the flotilla – was intended to carry a few dozen activists. Organizers bought the vessel for €530,000.

Ynet learned Wednesday that the ship was being prevented from docking in France thanks to pressure applied by parliament members and organizations on insurance local companies and authorities. The vessel is currently anchored in waters outside of Marseille, where it has been for the past four days.

"It's fantastic. Even we didn't believe this battle would lead to victory," a member of the French Jewish community told Ynet. He said he and other Jewish representatives had decided to join together to try to prevent the flotilla, and subsequently wrote letters of protest to 500 MPs and organizations.

"We acted fast, sent letters and warned all of the communities. We used social media and the internet, sent mail, set meetings, and made phone calls," he said. "We enlisted 15 non-Jewish organizations to support the battle, and together we warned all of the political parties with no ties to Israel about the consequences."

...

On Tuesday the battle came to a hilt when Jewish MP Jacques-Alain Bénisti but a query to French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, asking to learn France's official position on the flotilla. The move was said to have put pressure on local insurance companies and helped to cancel the French ship's participation.

"We feel great joy, but we know that this is just a small battle in a larger war. There are many battles left until September. We must not claim victory, only rejoice in the united front we have presented and move on," a source from the Jewish community said.

Keep up the good work, folks.

Labels: flotilla of fools, France, Gaza plenty, Marseille