Is Official France, Now Becoming Anti-Israel?

Israeli Students Denied Tours at Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle

By Ahuva Balofsky June 16, 2015 , 9:30 am

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“As for the congregation, there shall be one statute both for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you, a statute for ever throughout your generations; as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.” (Numbers 15:15)

image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/louvre-paris-france.jpg

(Photo: Benh Lieu Song/ Wiki Commons)

In the latest incident of suspected French anti-Semitism, Israeli students set to visit Paris at the end of the month were denied reservations for guided tours at two important cultural sites, reported Haaretz Monday. The group, from Tel Aviv University, was told at each location that there were no spaces available.

Professor Sefy Hendler, an art history professor at the university, called the world-famous Louvre and nearby Sainte-Chapelle cathedral last month. Both institutions told him they were booked solid and could not reserve tours for his 12 students, despite offering multiple date options at the Louvre. Hendler then called back under a false name, pretending to be from fictional institutions based in Italy and Abu Dhabi, and was able to make the reservations for the same dates.

“It surprised me that a place that receives nine million visitors a year didn’t find room for us,” Hendler told Haaretz, referring to the Louvre, “even though we asked to tour in the middle of the week.”

Hendler considered cancelling the planned trip, but ultimately turned the matter over to Francois Heilbronn, president of French Friends of Tel Aviv University, the group sponsoring the trip. Heilbronn contacted both institutions, as well as French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin.

Heilbronn was told the reservations system at the Louvre is almost entirely automated, but the administration responded saying it was “disturbed” by the incident nevertheless and was launching an internal investigation.

In a communique cited by The Times of Israel, museum officials said an overflow of reservations in the computerized system led to the initial refusal, a situation which was resolved by the time Hendler called back under false pretenses.

“In a way, we are victims of our success. We receive on average 400 reservation requests per day and offer 15-minute-long visits. But demand is twice as large as supply,” the statement said. It noted, too, that a request from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, made later, was accepted by the system.

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Sainte-Chapelle’s reservations, by contrast, are handled by human beings. Philippe Belaval, the president of the National Monuments Center, which administers Sainte-Chapelle, said an investigation revealed recurring irregularities, but it was as yet unclear whether discrimination was involved in the denial.

Belaval said “disciplinary measures” would be taken, but that the individual responsible had  “never expressed hostility towards Israel.” He apologized for “compromising the treatment of requests” and a lack of “rigor and professionalism.”

Hendler sees both responses as excuses. “It’s clear to me that when you say no to Israelis, it’s a discriminatory and racist act. They don’t care whether you’re left- or right-wing. They simply don’t want the Israeli in the narrow sense through which they view him. It’s an incident that I simply don’t understand,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Jean-Francois Carenco, the governor of the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, has asked the prosecutor’s office to launch its own investigation into the suspected illegal discrimination.

“What was the idea? That if we don’t see the ‘Mona Lisa’ then the occupation would end? It’s completely foolish,” Hendler said, adding: “Beyond the Israeli question, France has extraordinary cultural treasures, and the French conception is a universal conception – that we are opening culture to everyone, including Russians, even though there are those who don’t like [President Vladimir] Putin, and to Israelis, even though there are those who don’t like [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu.

“From the moment that you start choosing whom you are opening the museums to,” he noted, “ultimately, you will admit only citizens of the Western democracies who think exactly as you do.”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/43512/latest-french-anti-semitism-denies-israeli-students-tours-at-louvre-jerusalem/#MABgAQHxMm5xhPjm.99

European Extremist Groups Win Seats In European Parliament. Disturbing Trend.

Neo-Nazis Set to Enter European Parliament

Posted by: Ahuva Balofsky May 27, 2014 , 1:19 pm

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“Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou bear witness in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice.” (Exodus 23:2)

(Photo: Wiki Commons)

In a frightening yet unsurprising turn of events, two neo-Nazi parties, Germany’s National Democratic Party and Greece’s Golden Dawn, gained enough votes in Europe’s parliamentary elections this week to take seats.  Recent changes in Germany’s election regulations, eliminating minimum thresholds, would allow the NPD to claim one of Germany’s 96 seats in the EU parliament, while Golden Dawn, with over 9 percent of the vote in Greece, would take 3.  There are 751 seats in the parliament, all told.

German Jews expressed immediate outrage over the results.  Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement, “Right-wing MPs are now coming into the European Parliament from all over Europe in order to implement their anti-European and extremist course.”

“Democratic parties are now called on to curb this way of thinking and to defend and maintain European values,” he added.  He referred to the senseless shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, saying the “specter of anti-Semitism” had become a “brutal reality.”

“Such a thing can never be accepted and this message should be the very first which emanates from the new European Parliament,” Graumann said.

The European Jewish Congress blamed European “passivity” for the current climate of anti-Semitism and the rise of far-right parties across the continent.

“The alarming successes of extremist parties in these elections is the result of the passivity of European leaders and governments to deal with real issues facing European citizens,” EJC President Moshe Kantor, who heads the council of European Jewish leaders, said at a Monday meeting with senior Belgian politicians in the wake of the deadly Brussels shooting.

“What better example is there of the lack of security, the absence of tolerance and the climate of fear in our European cities than this attack on Jews in the capital of Europe?” Kantor said.

The NPD is self-described as “national socialist”, and efforts have been made in Germany to ban the party for its openly xenophobic and anti-Semitic attitudes.  Golden Dawn’s founder, Nikos Michaloliakos, is an admirer of Adolf Hitler who claimed in 2012 that the Nazis were not responsible for the Holocaust.  Six of its parliament members, including Michaloliakos, were detained that same year by police on charges of belonging to a criminal organisation after the killing of an anti-fascist musician.  One is still in prison.

In addition to these two parties, in France, the far-right National Front party scored 25 percent of the vote, and Austria’s Freedom Party achieved similar success.  Britain’s UK Independence Party, which promotes withdrawal from the European Union, won 27.5 percent of the national vote.  Hungary, too, was set to give seats to its far-right.

“To protect the values of our modern unified Europe we need European leaders to bolster existing legislation against hate, law enforcement agencies to strengthen enforcement and educators to teach against hate, intolerance and xenophobia to the next generation,” Kantor said.

“The European Union is supposed to be the bulwark against the rise of racism and intolerance but it has become the catalyst for the justification of its citizens to vote for extremists and racists,” he lamented.

“There is insecurity and there are real concerns over national identity. The Jewish community knows very well about immigration and we know about how minorities integrate into societies. These are real concerns, as much for minority communities as for indigenous citizens. If we want to combat anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance, we must address these issues,” Kantor concluded.

Europe has been experiencing a significant intensification in anti-Semitism.  Attacks on Jews are reported frequently, and an EU survey showed that one quarter of it Jewish population are afraid to wear identifying symbols.  Two recently-released studies on anti-Semitism worldwide, one by Tel Aviv University and the other by the Anti-Defamation League, have highlighted worrisome trends.  The TAU report showed an overall increase in the number of anti-Semitic attacks in recent years, while the ADL’s Global 100 survey indicated that over one quarter of the world’s population harbors anti-Semitic beliefs and attitudes.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/15702/neo-nazis-set-enter-european-parliament/#972pEpaUTp1uKLmc.99