Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Is Anti-Semitism on Rise in Europe?

Aired April 04, 2002 - 08:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Our big question at this hour, is anti- Semitism on the rise in Europe? The rising anger against Israel extends beyond the Arab world to Europe, where there has been a surge in anti-Semitism, especially in France.

Now, for more on that, we go live to our own Jim Bitterman, who joins us from our Paris bureau this morning -- good morning, Jim.

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, two more anti-Semitic attacks overnight here in France, not as serious as some of the previous ones, but targeting Jewish sites nonetheless. A religious center in Montpelier was firebombed but the firebombs mostly missed so the damage wasn't that bad. And at a religious school outside of Paris, a bus was firebombed and it was completely destroyed.

Also overnight, another in what has become almost a series of protest demonstrations, demonstrations that are taking place both here in Paris and in Marseilles, people protesting against the policies of Ariel Sharon and in favor of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

We think the big protest, however, is going to come on Sunday when the Jewish community here has called on the French to protest this growing series of anti-Semitic attacks related to the Middle East conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BITTERMAN (voice-over): Officials in France say they do not want the anger in the Middle East played out here. But earlier this week it looked unavoidable. As supporters of Yasser Arafat returned to Paris from Ramallah, pro and anti-Israeli factions got into a fistfight at the airport. The police had their hands full keeping the two sides apart.

More seriously, French police are having an even harder time combating a series of anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish synagogues, schools, cemeteries and butcher shops. This synagogue in Marseilles was burned to the ground and Jewish leaders count nearly two dozen lesser attacks against other synagogues.

Jewish community leaders have been warning about the upsurge in violence for months, and on the eve of elections here, the government has begun to share their alarm, dispatching 1,100 additional police to protect Jewish neighborhoods.

But Roger Cukierman, a community spokesman, says it must go further.

ROGER CUKIERMAN, PRESIDENT, JEWISH REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL: Things can only be stopped if the police is arresting aggressors and making strong examples with a lot of publicity.

BITTERMAN: Cukierman says strong statements against Israeli tactics by the French prime minister and foreign minister, along with media coverage of the Middle East conflict, have inflamed the situation in France. And there are growing protests by French Muslims angered by the Israeli government's actions against the Palestinians.

(on camera): The Palestinian representative here urged Arabs not to translate their hatred for the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon into hatred for the Jews of France. But a Jewish spokesman said those behind the attacks have neither the information nor interest in making such a careful distinction.

(voice-over): Those who've seen anti-Semitism in Europe at its worst like French lawyer Sam Pisar believes the climate against the Jews now is as bad as it's been since WWII. Pisar, a polish born Jew who survived Auschwitz and two other concentration camps and has lived more than half his life in France, says he never thought he would again face a time when Jews were persecuted here.

SAM PISAR, PARIS ATTORNEY: Not enough is being done to stem the whole thing. People are just letting it go and praying that it will not explode. I think it could become much worse. It needs careful and rapid attention.

BITTERMAN: In a country with the largest Jewish and Islamic communities in Europe, the authorities will have to pay careful attention to keep the situation under control.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BITTERMAN: And, Paula, the Catholic Church here in France has now weighed in on the issue, saying that social peace in the country is at stake if the Middle East conflict continues to be played out on the streets here -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, thanks so much thanks so much for that report.

Jim Bitterman joining us from Paris today.

And while the Israeli incursion may seem to be fanning the flames of anti-Semitism in Europe, the American Jewish Committee says in France it's nothing new. Over the past 18 months, they say, there have been 400 documented cases of anti-Semitism there alone.

And the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris, joins us now.

Nothing to laugh about, but when you can't pronounce that word early on a morning...

DAVID HARRIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE: I wish we didn't have to use the word at all.

ZAHN: Well, of course. Everybody does. But let's talk a little bit about the official French reaction to this. We're going to put up on the screen something that the prime minister has said about clamping down on this. He says, "Any act of anti-Semitism, no matter what the pretext, will be extremely firmly pursued and cracked down upon by the justice system."

How confident are you that the French government will do just that?

HARRIS: I'd like to believe it will happen. We'll have to wait and see. For the last 18 months, as you said, we have had hundreds of documented attacks against Jews and Jewish targets in France. And during all that time, the French Jewish community and friends outside France, including ourselves, have pressed the French government to do more. And frankly we've been disappointed by the response until now.

ZAHN: So, what, the French government says we're looking at it, we're working on it, and then the actions don't follow?

HARRIS: Well, there have been several kinds of reactions. One reaction is France is not an anti-Semitic country, as if that would end the discussion. Well, this is not about the fact that France is an anti-Semitic country. It's not. But there are anti-Semitic attacks taking place inside France and they can't be ignored.

The lesson of dealing with anti-Semitism is you don't let it fester. If it does, it only grows. We have asked the French government repeatedly to do more. We have been told there are no anti-Semitic attacks.

Then we've been told there are, but solve the problems in the Middle East and you'll solve the problems of anti-Semitism. Well, I wish we could solve the problems in the Middle East, but the problems in the Middle East are beyond us. And until we have a credible peace partner on the Palestinian side, there may not be a solution. But that cannot justify any attack against any Jew or Jewish target in France, period and full stop.

ZAHN: So is part of the problem that the French government has to walk this fine line? Jim Bitterman just pointed out in his piece that you have a high population of Arabs living in France, as well. Is that the problem?

HARRIS: You have several problems. You have the fact that there are a large Arab population in France. To a large degree they're not well integrated. They live in poor suburbs. In some cases, police are afraid to go into those neighborhoods. There are no go zones. You have a French government that has been decidedly pro-Arab and quite anti-Israel in its public statements. You have a media which has fanned the flames of this, as well, by being rather openly pro- Arab and anti-Israel. And you have actions by people like the French ambassador in Britain, who at a private dinner made an awful remark about Israel. He was never reprimanded by the French government. He was never recalled. It sends a message. It sends a message that these things go.

Now, we've been pressing the French government. How many people have been arrested? How many people have been prosecuted? How many people have been convicted for these anti-Semitic attacks? To this day we don't the answer.

ZAHN: Do you think it's no one?

HARRIS: We don't know.

ZAHN: You just don't know.

HARRIS: We don't know.

ZAHN: David, a final thought about the rise of anti-Semitism elsewhere in Europe. We've seen attacks, what, in Belgium?

HARRIS: Yes, Paula...

ZAHN: Berlin.

HARRIS: Traditionally there are three sources of anti-Semitism in Europe that we have to watch carefully. There's the extreme right, which has never gone away, the neo-Nazi, holocaust denying right. There is the intellectual left that is anti-Zionist, claims it's not anti-Semitic, but as Martin Luther King said some years ago you can't be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic. You can't deny the Jewish people the right to their own state without being anti-Semitic. And then you have the sources in the Muslim community. And Muslim communities in Europe are growing. Not all Muslim communities are anti-Semitic, but within those communities there are pockets of anti- Semitism fed by the kinds of traditional anti-Semitic canards that we've often heard and we see it in Belgium.

We just saw an attack on two American Jews in Berlin. In Greece, the small Jewish community said to us after September 11 the Greek press is full of conspiracy theories against Jews in Israel about the September 11 attacks. In Spain we have vicious cartoons that portray Jews and Israelis as nazis.

So we've got a larger problem here and having lived in Europe for the last year, we saw it ourselves, especially where we lived in Switzerland.

ZAHN: All right, David Harris, we're going to leave it on that note, on that unfortunate note. But we appreciate your better educating us this morning.

HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you.

ZAHN: Thanks for your time this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com