Translated from French by PAJU
While the danger of seeing the Rassemblement National come to power has never been as great as since the surprise dissolution of Sunday June 9, 2024, apprentice sorcerers have chosen to exploit antisemitism to attack the Left and environmentalists through an improbable diversion of meaning.
The Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF), (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France), l’Union des Etudiants Juifs de France (UEJF) ( the Union of Jewish Students of France ) the Fonds Social Juif Unifié (FSJU) (the Unified Jewish Social Fund) the Collectif Nous Vivrons and the Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme (LICRA) (International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism) denounced the alliance of left-wing parties and ecologists in the Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front), calling it a shame and an infamous agreement on the pretext that it includes the Mouvement de la France Insoumise (MFI) accused of antisemitism by these organizations. By combining criticism of Israeli policy and just support for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people with antisemitism, they come to oppose the essential fight of all democrats against the Rassemblement National. Such amalgamations feed antisemitism, just as the assimilation of all Muslims to Hamas or Islamic Jihad feeds Islamophobia and racism against Arabs.
In their litany against what they call the extremes which they line up back to back, Emmanuel Macron, his ministers and his candidates, also accuse the extreme left of antisemitism, not hesitating to enlist Léon Blum in their defamatory accusations which are repeated in multiple statements and conveyed at will through several media.
As Jewish citizens, whose history has taught us what antisemitism is, we condemn the unfounded accusations of antisemitism against the MFI and the Nouveau Front Populaire parties. We reject this falsification of political reality which joins with the falsifications of history.
This exploitation of anti-Semitism is reprehensible on many grounds. It white-washes the far right whose history and roots are inseparable from racism, antisemitism and xenophobia. It prevents the creation of a barrier capable of blocking the Rassemblement National. It aims to break the alliance of the Left and the ecologists, a rupture which would only benefit the extreme right, and because it thus attempts to destroy the only credible and desirable alternative to this major risk for freedom, equality, fraternity and democracy. It sabotages the fight against the resurgence of antisemitism in France and in Europe, a crucial fight, inseparable from the fight against other forms of racism.
Some were offended and disagreed with a certain declaration or position taken by certain activists or officials of the MFI or other parties of the Nouveau Front Populaire. However, we refuse to endorse political accusations and the exploitation of antisemitism which aims to delegitimize rather than debate.
Like all racism, antisemitism is an offense that is punishable by law. However, no leader or elected official of the parties making up the Nouveau Front Populaire, whose program affirms that antisemitism has a tragic history in our country which must not be repeated and that all those who propagate hatred of Jews must be fought, has been condemned for these facts, unlike many leaders of the Front National or Reconquête, and no complaint for antisemitism has been filed against a left-wing or political ecology leader.
That the Rassemblement National now supports the Israeli government and colonization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) does not change its fundamental nature. It is still on the far right that prejudices and racist acts, anti-Arab and antisemitic in particular, are most widespread, as consistently demonstrated by the annual reports of the Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits Humains (CNCDH) (National Consultative Commission on Human Rights).
The fight against antisemitism and against all forms of racism is a fundamental fight. It cannot and must not be led astray by political games.
We Jewish citizens consider it our historical duty, in the name of our individual and collective memories, for history and for the future, to block the coming to power of the Rassemblement National. This is the emergency and this is the real fight against antisemitism and against all forms of racism.
published on Libération June 20 2024
You can consult the complete list of signatories and also sign on to this forum at: https://appeljuin2024.org
- https://melenchon.fr/2024/06/21/tribune-instrumentaliser-lantisemitisme-au-lieu-de-combattre-lextreme-droite-est-indigne-et-dangereux/
- https://www.fischer02003.over-blog.com/2024/06/front-populaire-contre-l-antisemitisme.html
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