Word: anti
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...time of Halimi's death, many commentators - and, initially, even the French police - declined to see Halimi's abduction and murder as an anti-Semitic crime. Instead, they explained it as a naive ransom attempt by plotters whose motivation was financial gain, even if their social milieu and limited education had led them to accept grotesque racist stereotypes of Jews. No one is offering such rationalizations any longer...
...this crime wasn't anti-Semitic, what crime is?" agreed Laurent Joffrin in his editorial for the daily Libération as the trial opened. Joffrin warned that anti-Semitic thinking that has long been present among France's extreme right- and left-wing political groups is gaining traction in France's blighted suburbs. "In the exclusion of the projects, in the racism that strikes minorities, and in their social despair," Joffrin wrote, "the old plague has found favorable terrain...
...plague," of course, is also boosted by a tendency to hold France's Jews responsible for Israel's actions: anti-Semitic attacks here tend to spike during outbreaks of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Prasquier noted the "disturbing surge of [anti-Semitic] acts in January, due to the war in Gaza." Previous outbreaks of Mideast violence in recent years have produced a similar effect in France, which is home to Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities - populations of around 6 million and 350,000, respectively. The 936 anti-Semitic acts reported in 2002 and the 974 two years later...
...Even at that time, however, French Jewish leaders denounced Sharon's comments as unfounded, deeming them a misguided swipe at the pro-Arab policies of France's then President Jacques Chirac. Current President Nicolas Sarkozy has made priorities of cultivating strong relations with Israel and fighting anti-Semitism at home - factors that have partially contributed to a slowing of French emigration to Israel. Last year, the number of French Jews moving to Israel was 1,562 - a 33% decline from the 2007 figure, which itself had been down from...
...number of anti-Semitic attacks in France in 2008 dropped for the third straight year, to 397 - even as racist acts directed at other minorities exploded 45% higher. Though the recent violence in Gaza fueled a spate of anti-Jewish aggression in France during December and January, Prasquier is careful to note that "France wasn't unique in this way, because we saw the same kind of action against Jews elsewhere in Europe - notably in England and Belgium...