Jul. 18, 2004 21:14 | Updated Jul. 19, 2004 0:21
PM: French Jews should immigrate
By HERB KEINON
 

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called on France's 600,000 Jews to immigrate to srael "immediately," prompting the French Foreign Ministry to issue a response calling his comments "unacceptable."

"If I have to advocate to our brothers in France, I would tell them one thing: move to Israel, as early as possible," Sharon told a meeting of the United Jewish Communities in Jerusalem.

Sharon's comments came a week after a 23-year-old woman shocked France by first claiming she was the victim of an anti-Semitic incident on a train, and then admitting that she made the whole thing up.

Although this particular woman was not attacked, in the first six months of 2004 there were – according to French Foreign Ministry statistics – 135 physical attacks against Jews.
By comparison, in all of 2003 there were 127 such attacks.

While praising the French government for taking steps to fight anti-Semitism, Sharon said, "We see the spread of the wildest anti-Semitism there."

Sharon urged Jews from around the world to immigrate to Israel, but said that this is especially critical now for French Jews.

A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement shortly after the French press picked up Sharon's comments.

"We have been informed today of the declaration made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calling upon the Jews of France to immigrate to Israel," the spokesman said. "We immediately contacted the Israeli authorities in order to seek explanations for those unacceptable comments."

AFP reported that in the aftermath of the alleged attack on the train, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said that "anti-Semitism is a disgrace. We want to fight this sort of intolerable racism. There is also something wrong in our society: it's the indifference to violence," he said.
Sharon's call for increased immigration from France comes at a time when an increasing number of French Jews are considering aliya.

The Jewish Agency expects to receive 200 French immigrants on July 28, said Mike Rosenberg, who is director-general of the Jewish Agency's immigration and absorption department. He is hopeful that close to 3,000 will arrive this year. As anti-Semitism increased, the numbers of French immigrants doubled from 1,100 in 2001 to 2,083 in 2003, Rosenberg told The Jerusalem Post.

"A large majority of [French Jews] have visited Israel and have a connection to Israel," he said.
He said there are neighborhoods in France where Jewish families are complaining that it isn't safe to let their children play outside. "There is a definite atmosphere that it is not safe to be Jewish," said Rosenberg.

"When they come down to street level, religious Jews remove their kippa," said Rosenberg. He attributed it in large part to the rapid demographic changes taking place in France, where the growing Muslim population is largely "anti-Israel."

"I do not think that you have to be a genius to realize that this is not a reversible situation. I would expect it to get worse, not better," as the Muslim population grows, said Rosenberg.