Paris – French President: I’ll Get Personaly Involved To Curb Rise In Anti-Semitic Incidents

Paris – French President Nicolas Sarlozy has assured a Jewish delegation that he would get “personally and more strongly” involved in the fight against anti-Semitism in France.

Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, the umbrella representative body of French Jewish organizations, who met Friday with Sarkozy at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris, told EJP after the meeting: “The President told us that he would get himself involved, together with his cabinet chief, in the fight against anti-Semitism.”

Prasquier, who had asked for the meeting, stressed the concern of a large part of the French Jewish community in view of the important rise of the number of anti-Semitic acts in the country in the wake of the recent Gaza events.

He said the French president spoke of a “new impetus”” he intends to give to the fight against anti-semitism. He however didn’t mention specific measures. “I think that such measures will come after some concertation and meetings,” Prasquier said.

Earlier this month, Sarkozy vowed “zero tolerance” for hate violence and warned “there is no place in the republic for anti-Semites or Islamophobes.”

“Those who want to import to France these communal tensions will find the republican state in their path,” he said.

Prasquier was accompanied at the Elysée by a delegation of the CRIF executive body comprising Meyer Habib, Ariel Goldmann, Roger Benarrosh, Francis Kalifat and Haim Musicant.

The French president has accepted to be the guest of honour at the landmark annual dinner of CRIF on March 2.

Around 600,000 Jews live in the country, the largest Jewish community in Europe.