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20 Tammuz 5765 - July 27, 2005 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Bottles Containing Chlorine Solution Thrown at French Jewish Students During Tefilloh

By Arnon Yaffeh, Paris

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy visited Sinai, a Jewish day school located in Paris' 18th arrondissement, after three Arab teenagers were arrested on suspicions of throwing bottles filled with a chlorine solution into the school yard and the beis knesses. "He who attacks Jews attacks the French Republic," Sarkozy declared.

The incident took place on Shabbos during the tefilloh and was accompanied by antisemitic shouts. The congregants heard an exploding sound and then a suffocating smell escaped from the bottles. No injuries were reported.

According to the Interior Ministry antisemitic attacks have been cut in half but Jews in the city's less hospitable neighborhoods say violence has been on the increase. In the 18th and 19th arrondissements groups of Arabs have been harassing Jews on their way to shul and recently Jewish children were beaten by Arabs. The terrorist attacks in London and Sharm a-Sheikh, ongoing antisemitic incitement, and the summer heat in cramped apartments, all combine to rile the Arabs youths of Parisian suburbs.

The use of chemical substances indicates that they are preparing crude chemical weapons. Had the bottles come close to the children playing in the school yard the acid could have caused serious injuries, chas vesholom.

Before his visit that began on Tuesday, Sharon complimented the French government for its fight against antisemitism. Several months ago French President Chirac rescinded an invitation to Sharon for calling on French Jews to make aliyah.

Many Jews are now leaving the dangerous suburbs and some of them are indeed moving to Eretz Yisroel. A special flight brought a group of 300 French immigrants early this week, including an entire kehilloh with its four sifrei Torah that settled in Har Choma. The immigrants include numerous students who were offered study grants in Israel.

Another 600 French immigrants are scheduled to arrive later this week on two more flights. According to reports not a single Israeli minister received them at the airport this time, to avoid annoying French President Chirac.

Puzzled by the decision to leave their relatively comfortable lives in France to live under the threat of Palestinian terrorism, the French attribute the move to Israeli propaganda against France. Meanwhile Jews are saying they no longer feel at home in France due to the protracted antisemitic agitation and the pro-Arab policy. President Chirac is trying to repair his ties with Israel, altering appearances but not French policy.

It appears that judges have also received instructions to issue stricter rulings in cases of alleged antisemitism. One judge sentenced three antisemitic agitators for the first time. Writers Edgar Moran, Daniel Salvan and Sami Na'ir, who wrote a hateful article in Le Monde accusing the Jews of crimes against humanity and claiming that the Jews, former victims, have now turned into the hangmen, and that the landless have turned into occupiers, were sentenced to pay 50,000 euros for antisemitic incitement. Salvan even went digging in the wreckage of Arab villages in Israel to uncover "Zionist crimes." Until now both antisemitic agitators and assailants have been systematically acquitted.

 

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