2023-07-18 01:38:08
Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), severely pinned Jean-Luc Mélenchon this Sunday, accusing him in particular of “compromising far from the republican pact”. Words that did not please the head of insubordinate France, who indicated that “the far right has no limits”, then triggering a controversy, especially on the left.
If Jean-Luc Mélenchon was defended by certain members of his party like Alexis Corbière, he also provoked the anger of other left-wing elected officials, like Patrick Kanner. The Crif on the far right? “Abject”, tweeted the boss of the socialist senators.
accuse the crif to be on the far right is “particularly perverse” and “grotesque”, reacted to AFP Yonathan Arfi, recalling that the organization had been “founded in the Resistance” and that the fight against the far right was in its “deep DNA”.
“A republican vision of French society”
To understand the controversy, you have to go back to the origins of Crif and unfold its history. It was secretly born in 1943 when the whole of Europe was plunged into war. Body representing Jewish institutions in France, Crif is thought of as a federation of 67 French Jewish associations and is the representative body of all these associations which represent the organized Jewish community, in its diversity and plurality.
If the Crif represents different political, social or religious tendencies present in the Jewish community of France, it “is part of a republican vision of French society and defends a broader vision of the general interest”, he indicates on son site.
The latter specifies that he is mobilizing “against anti-Semitism in all its forms, racism, intolerance, exclusion, and against all forms of discrimination” and more generally against genocide and violations of human rights.
In its early days, the Crif was careful not to adopt a political position as during the Algerian war, where it chose not to express itself despite the more than 100,000 French people of the Jewish faith living in Algeria.
The extremes never invited to the famous dinner
Despite a great plurality of points of view on the Palestinian question at its beginnings, the Crif evolved in particular with the adoption of a new charter in 1977, which defines the “belonging of the French Jew to the Jewish people in Israel and in the diaspora “. The Crif is therefore at the side of Israel, even if it affirms that it supports a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In 1982, Théo Klein slightly modified the functioning of Crif. “He summons the press, speaks alone, without the other members of the council, and affirms his right, as president, to take an independent and even critical look at the Jewish state,” recalls France Inter. He maintains good relations with the Socialists and those close to the new President François Mitterrand.
It was he himself who initiated the Dîner du Crif, created in 1985. Since then, each year, the association invites representatives of political and civil life with whom it exchanges throughout the year to a republican dinner. . The Crif gives an update on its action, awards prizes and its president discusses with the Head of State. An appointment not to be missed for all governments and parties, with the exception of the extreme right and the extreme left which are never invited.
In 2017, Francis Kalifat had also had to justify this position of principle. “I will insist this evening in my speech on the danger represented by extremes, on the right as well as on the left. I am sending Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon back to back because they both convey hatred”, he had thus declared to 20 Minutes. In 2022, Éric Zemmour had also not been invited.
A divisive association
Over the years, Crif has thus become an actor in French political life, arousing criticism from its detractors who sometimes reproach it for its closeness to the views of Israeli governments. This was particularly accentuated in the 2000s, under the presidency of Roger Cukiermann, a turning point for the Crif since there is no longer any question of an Israeli-Arab rapprochement for peace.
The same Cukiermann is scratched for his commitment alongside the right until the 2007 election and his support for Nicolas Sarkozy. Under the latter’s presidency, the Crif does not hesitate to denigrate French Jews who criticize the institution. In addition, he takes a position criticized the day after the passage to the second round of the presidential election of Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002 by declaring: “The next government will have to make efforts in the fight against all violence … including violence anti-semitic. »
The last big controversy dates back to 2018. The Crif caused a general outcry and found itself isolated when its president Francis Kalifat declared that Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon were not welcome at the white march organized in tribute to Mireille Knoll, a Jewish octogenarian stabbed in her Parisian home. An episode that left traces in the relationship between the Crif and the Insoumis.
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