- PARIS -- Some 200 French
Jews departed for Israel 10 days after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sparked
controversy by urging France's 600,000 or so Jews to emigrate to escape
what he called the "wildest anti-Semitism."
-
- Sharon was due personally to welcome the immigrants upon
their arrival in Tel Aviv on Wednesday - a move that could raise eyebrows
in France after the recent controversy.
-
- A government official said Sharon's reception was not
meant to send any message to the French government but reflected the importance
attributed to aliya, or Jewish immigration to Israel.
-
- "Whenever immigrants come, and Sharon has the time
and the ability, he will go and meet them," government spokesman Ra'anan
Gissin said. "His stance comes not from politics, but conviction and
belief."
-
- Sharon made his comments on July 18 in a speech to Jewish
leaders in Jerusalem. He acknowledged French government efforts to stem
anti-Semitism. But his remarks outraged French leaders.
-
- President Jacques Chirac's office said it was putting
plans to arrange a visit by Sharon on hold until he explained his comments,
and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said there had been a "serious
misunderstanding".
-
- "Nothing that Sharon said was directed against Chirac,"
Gissin said. "Sharon meant solely to say to Jews that the only place
in the world where Jews have the right to defend themselves, by themselves,
the ability to do so, is here."
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- France registered 67 attacks on Jews or their property
and 160 threats against Jews in the first quarter of 2004 versus 42 attacks
and 191 threats in the last three months of 2003.
-
- More Jews leaving than a few years ago France, home to
Western Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities, has been troubled
by anti-Semitic attacks and more Jews are leaving than a few years ago.
-
- Some attacks on Jews and Jewish property are blamed on
tensions over the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
-
- Despite the impact of violence on daily life in Israel,
the Agence Juive organization, which assists emigration, expects some 3,000
French Jews to begin new lives there this year, up from 900 in 2001.
-
- Some five million Muslims live in France, many tracing
their roots back to the post-colonial emigration from North Africa.
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