World
UPDATED: 08:31, July 19, 2004
France denounces Sharon's call for French Jews to move to Israel
The French Foreign Ministry on Sunday slammed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's remark that all Jews living in France should leave and move to Israel immediately.
"We have immediately taken contact with the Israeli authorities to demand their explanation for these unacceptable remarks," said the ministry in a statement.
Earlier on Sunday, Sharon told a meeting of an American Jewish association in Jerusalem that he has to "advocate to our brothers in France: Move to Israel as early as possible."
"That's what I say to Jews all around the world but there (France) I think it's a must. They have to move immediately," he said while praising the French government for taking action against the "spread of the wildest anti-Semitism".
France, home to Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities,estimated at 600,000 and 5 million respectively, saw the number of racist incidents soaring this year.
The country was gripped by a bout of soul-searching about anti-Semitism last week when a 23-year-old woman initially told police that a gang of six youths had accosted her on a Paris suburban train, slashing her clothes and drawing swastikas on her stomach after mistaking her for a Jew.
But she later admitted to police that she had made up the entire incident and begged forgiveness in a televised apology.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France also criticized Sharon's remarks as "adding oil to the fire" and "not corresponding to the facts."
"The Jewish community (in France) is worrying for the future oftheir children, but it knows that the French political authoritiesare doing all to fight against the anti-Semitism. To add oil to the fire in this way (in Sharon's way) is not acceptable," said the council in a statement.
The council also disagreed with Sharon's argument that 10 percent of the French population are Muslim means that the countryis anti-Semitist.
This remark confuses "a strong Muslim population and the fact that most of anti-Semitist came from the Muslim," said the statement, "To link the two is unacceptable."
"France is not an anti-Semitist nation and the French government is trying to do all, but the situation is difficult," it added.
Source: Xinhua
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