This report is from the Cybercast News Service:
Anti-Semitism in France reached a new level last weekend when a singer performing at a charity concert was heckled with cries of “Dirty Jew” and “Death to Jews” as the country’s first lady and the patroness of the event, Bernadette Chirac, stood watching backstage.
Shirel, a 25-year-old singer who holds American, French and Israeli citizenship, was performing in the eastern French town of Macon on Saturday night at a concert that was being taped for television. Five youths were taken into custody on Wednesday after being identified on the videotape and were set to be charged in connection with the incident. [Presumably the “youths” were Arabs, although the story doesn’t say that.]
[Manek] Weintraub said there is an increased level of worry among French Jews about anti-Semitic acts and more talk of emigration to Canada or the United States. France has seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in recent months, including attacks in public places on citizens identified as Jews, and even a skit on state-owned television by a comedian who gave the Nazi salute as he shouted “IsraeHeil” and invited Arab youths to join the “American-Zionist axis.”
Weintraub said 90 percent of France’s anti-Semitic incidents could be traced to disaffected Arab youths sympathizing with the Palestinian cause.
DEACON adds: Reader Chip Halstead suggests that the lack of specificity as to the ethnic origin of the anti-semitic “youths” may be down to a translation issue. Mr. Halstead notes that the politically correct term in the French media for ethnically Arab, young street toughs is “les jeunes,” which literally translates into English as “the youths.”
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