Gotta See This - Part 3 - Fighting in France against Demonstrators against Anti-Semitism

AP ^ | 4/8/02

[Diogenesis]

In Paris, France, pro-Israel demonstrators speak out against European anti-Semitism, Sunday April 7, 2002.

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Anti-Israel foes clash and attack, and then the police attack the anti-Semitism protest.

[July 4th]

(AP) - Thousands turn out for Jewish demonstration in Paris

Tens of thousands of French Jews marched through Paris to show their anger at a spate of attacks on Jewish targets in France and support for Israel in the bloody conflict with the Palestinians.

Behind a banner reading "With Israel for Peace and Security. Against Terrorism and Anti-Semitism," the crowd -- estimated by the police at 53,000 -- moved down the 1.5 kilometre (one mile) from the Place de la Republique to Bastille to a background of songs and chanting in Hebrew and French.

However the protest was marred by violence, as a policeman was stabbed in the stomach by a far-right Jewish demonstrator who was trying to attack supporters of the Israeli peace movement Peace Now.

Reporters said a gang of young men, some of them in masks, wielded baseball bats and knives as they set upon the peace activists who had held a separate demonstration on the route of the march.

The policeman was in serious condition, police said late Sunday.

There was also trouble in a parallel demonstration in the southern port of Marseille, where a group of young Arabs flung missiles at the procession and chanted slogans such as "We are all kamikazes."

In Paris protesters bore pictures of victims of the Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel, and waved Israeli and French flags. Posters carried the slogan, "Yesterday New York; Today Jerusalem; Tomorrow Paris."

Among the crowds were show business personalities such as singer Patrick Bruel, television presenter Arthur and filmmaker Alexandre Arcady as well presidential candidate Alain Madelin of the rightwing Liberal Democracy party.

"An attack on a synagogue has got to be recognised as an act of terrorism. Anti-Semitism is the beginning of terrorism," said David Messas, the grand rabbi of Paris, at the head of the march.

The march -- replicated in several other French cities -- took place a day after thousands joined a pro-Palestinian march through the French capital, and as around the world crowds turned out in several cities to condemn Israel's assault on the West Bank.

Police said 8,000 people marched in Lyon while organisers claimed 10,000 marched in Marseille, up to 5,000 in Strasbourg and about a thousand marched in the cities of Bordeaux, Nice and Montpellier.

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) -- an umbrella group -- organised the protest after last weekend's arson attacks on Jewish buildings, in which a synagogue in Marseille was destroyed and two others damaged.

Attacks on Jewish people and property have taken place daily ever since. In the latest report, a firebomb was set off in a storeroom of a Jewish school in Marseille late Sunday but was put out before any damage was done, police said.

A Jewish school in the Paris suburb of Epinay was also hit with Molotov cocktails overnight Saturday, and a 30-year-old Jewish man was hospitalised after being set upon with a wooden stick.

Presumed to be the work of members of France's four million strong Arab community, the attacks have been condemned by leaders of all religious faiths as well as by the candidates in this month's presidential elections.

However France's 700,000-strong Jewish community -- the largest in Europe -- has itself been divided over how to react, with many on the left refusing to link condemnation of the attacks in France with support for the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Several hundred left-wing Jews attended the second demonstration organised by supporters of Peace Now where Sunday's violence briefly erupted.

"We wish the big demonstration had been just against anti-Semitism. Then it would have had the support of everyone. But the CRIF wanted to mix the issues up," said David Chemla of the French Friends of Peace Now.

Many French Jews also blamed anti-Israeli feeling in France for creating a climate in which attacks by Arabs became possible.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

My apologies to a few French. There are some decent French left.

[July 4th]

Thanks for the pics. I read the story earlier and wondered how things went.

[Blackyce]

Anti-semitism is probably the wrong phrase, since Arabs are Semites also.

[ImpBill]

What with all the lefty pro-Islamists even demonstrating here in the U.S. (near the Bush Ranch yesterday) I would certainly like to see some Americans take to the streets in support of Israel.

Good for these good people of France. Europeans had better wake up. The Islamists are a far greater danger than the Jews ever were.

Fundamental Islam is out to destroy everything not of Islam.

[xzins]

There is no way that anti-Israel can be separated from anti-Jew in MOST cases. These demonstrators wished to remove that linkage, so they said.

But the truth is that only a blind man can turn away from the threat in the Middle East to destroy Israel; to have it cease existence. Also, the Arabs were anti-Jewish when Hitler was in diapers. Mohammed condemned them and ordered the execution of hundreds.

Their religion being condemned IS THE BASIS of their nation being rejected. That rejection far precedes the creation of the nation of Israel.

[grimalkin]

My apologies to a few French. There are some decent French left.

Agreed. There are many decent Europeons. Unfortunately, it's hard to hear them over the screaming dirtbags.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

bump

[JCG]

Good for these good people of France. Europeans had better wake up. The Islamists are a far greater danger than the Jews ever were.

We'd better wake up, too.

Here's a happy thought from Middle East expert Daniel Pipes:

Islamists constitute a small but significant minority of Muslims, perhaps 10 to 15 per cent of the population. Many of them are peaceable in apearance, but they all must be considered potential killers.

How does 400,000 to 800,000 -- in our country -- potential killers sound?

Pipes article here...

Muslim population in America

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

[RnMomof7]

Great pics. Thank God that all the French are not fools

[aimlow]

Heard the french tried to surrender to the leader of the march.

[wretchard]

Another picture from the same event. Why do these French police uniforms look vaguely familiar?

[Pyro7480]

Here's pictures from the pro-Israel rally in NYC today.

Thousands of demonstrators fill a city block near the United Nations to support Israel in its military offensive in the West Bank Sunday, April 7, 2002, in New York. (AP Photo/Osamu Honda)

A boy waves to police officers as he holds a sign, during a rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the United Nations in New York, Sunday, April 7, 2002, in support for Israel in its military offensive on the West Bank. (AP Photo/Osamu Honda)

[willyone]

And just what danger did the Jews ever present? Perhaps the smoke from their being burned after being gassed presented a health hazard?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Excellant. Thanks.

[bert]

not really

[Savage Beast]

Do not criticize the French too harshly. They are America's oldest allies. They are a great people--fine, just, honorable, and truthful. Remember the Resistance.