“The Jews of France are no more responsible for Israeli policy than the Arabs of France are for Hamas terrorism”

2023-10-29 10:24:21

France is home to the largest Jewish and Arab communities in Europe. It is a wealth, the reflection of its centuries-old history as a land of welcome and immigration, but also a risk, that of seeing the Israel-Palestine conflict transposed there. The danger is not new. The time is long gone when Jews and Arabs of France, after the death of Malik Oussekine (1986) or the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Carpentras (1990) expressed their emotion together.

Also read the editorial: Israel-Hamas: the dangers of French political polarization

The failure of the Oslo peace process, the attacks of September 11, 2001, then the conflicts in Iraq and especially Syria, contributed to exacerbating frustrations and resentment, to the point of giving rise to French jihadism. The substitution of religious identities for social references, the rise of Islamism and, in parallel, of a long-denied anti-Semitism, the ambiguities of anti-Zionism in a context of urban ghettoization and partial failure of the Republican promise of equality, have fueled a crisis of secularism and fractured left-wing parties and anti-racist associations. Against a backdrop of school and urban tensions, the endless series of attacks and jihadist attacks, some targeting Jews, has provoked a reflex of national unity, while exacerbating divisions and fears.

It is therefore a resilient but fragmented and exposed France which, since October 7, has been confronted with the shock of Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel. For the Jews of France, the trauma is twofold: not only does it reawaken the racial logic of the Shoah and shake Israel’s status as a country of refuge, but it provokes, in France, an outbreak of anti-Semitic acts reminiscent of a tragic story. For the Arabs of France, the flood of images of victims of the bombings on Gaza and attacks in the occupied territories can only arouse unease and anger.

Religious or cultural assignments

Is it possible to recall that the Jews of France are no more responsible for the abuses committed by a far-right government than the Arabs of France are for the terrorism of Hamas? No more than we require a Frenchman of Jewish culture or religion to condemn Benjamin Netanyahu before expressing his horror of the pogroms of October 7, we should summon a Frenchman of Muslim culture or religion to apologize for the crimes of Hamas or to disavow the latter in order to have the right to express one’s emotion over the deaths of Gaza.

Such assignments to a religious or cultural identity ignore the diversity of individual backgrounds and points of view. They fuel a dangerous mechanism: by enclosing everyone in the pain of “their own”, we tend to minimize that of “others” and we encourage the importation of conflict. What Jean-Luc Mélenchon does by refusing to recognize the crimes against humanity committed on October 7. By enjoining every Muslim to act of loyalty and contrition, we give credence to the suspicion of a generalized sympathy with terrorism and of a mechanical link between immigration and Islamism. What Marine Le Pen implicitly does when, under the cover of an unconditional defense of Israel, she blows on the embers of anti-Arab racism.

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