The Palestinians are succeeding in turning heads among opinion shapers in France in their campaign to hold a vote on the State of Palestine in the U.N. General Assembly. In France, prejudice, antisemitism and a hatred for Israel have reached the National Assembly. If the Jews once thought that hatred was restricted to the Arab suburbs, the European Palestine inciters and the Left, it has now come to light that anti-Israel propaganda has penetrated the highest spheres of domestic life in France, right-wing government figures and the French Parliament. Only President Sarkozy is holding back an eruption of more hostile sentiments against Israel.
As soon as Israel's new ambassador to France, Yossi Gal, finished delivering a lecture on Israel's efforts toward peace, the chairman of the France and Arab States Friendship Committee, Didier Julia of the ruling right-wing party, launched an attack. "Everything you said is merely empty propaganda. You are conquerors, colonialists," he said.
The Ambassador was told not to pay him any heed, that Julia was already known as lackey of Saddam Hussein, Bashar Assad and Muammar Kaddafi in France.
Jean-Luc Reitzer, a member of Sarkozy's party, continued, "Your honor, the Ambassador, we have always denounced terrorism. But among friends we must speak frankly. Colonialism has become a malignant illness among you," he said, referring to West Bank settlers.
Delegates from all of the parties attributed terrorism and war to Israeli "colonialism." One delegate from the Socialist Party by the name of Jean-Michel Boucheron made a point of mentioning how he had been a kibbutz volunteer in his youth. "That was the only place in the world of genuine socialism, but a lot of things have changed in Israel since then because the government of Israel does not seek peace," Boucheron blurted out at the Ambassador.
"Yes it's true," chimed in Herve de Charette, former foreign affairs minister under the Chirac government. "What you're doing to Gaza is really abhorrent. You are primarily responsible for the situation in Gaza and the situation between Israel and the Palestinians is one of the main barriers to world peace."
A communist representative denounced Israel's "apartheid" regime, pledging "to arrest and lead the trial in France of former prime minister Ehud Olmert for war crimes if he steps foot on French soil."
Only one delegate, Eric Raoult, disagreed with the attack, calling his colleagues' repetition of Arab propaganda "a Pavlovian reflex."
Ambassador Gal, a professional diplomat, concluded by asking them not to believe what they see on the news and to visit Israel to see for themselves. Yet the attacks reveal that Palestinian and anti-Israel propaganda make use of deep-seated antisemitism in the French, who are ready and willing to believe any canard against the Jews.
Meanwhile the newspapers are returning to 1948. Le Monde ran an article on the expulsion of the residents of Lifta, an Arab village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, adding a few more drops of venom.
