ANTISEMITISM IN FRANCE

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the so-called newness of today's antisemitism through the historical and social specificities of antisemitism in French society. It casts light on the continuities of antisemitic discourse in France, but also its transformation in relation to the French colonial heritage and the recent ‘communitarianisation’ of France's social life. This analysis of antisemitism is furthered by the presentation of two case-studies: the controversial discourses of comedian Dieudonné and Kémi Séba, leader of a black supremacist movement called Tribu KA which stirred controversies in the 2000s. These two examples emphasise the fact that antisemitic discourse is better understood as a narrative about downward social mobility and status, which hardly makes antisemitism new.

Keywords:

• antisemitism
• France
• racism
• identity
• ethnicity
• social mobility

Notes

¹This article presents some of the findings of a research project funded by the Ford and Hanadiv Foundations’ Grant Programme for the Study and Combating of Racism and Antisemitism in Europe. The research was undertaken with Robert Fine, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick. It aimed at contributing to the sociological understanding of modern antisemitism in relation to forms of political community and their resulting practices of inclusion and exclusion in France and Britain.

²See Rufin (2004), Commission Nationale consultative des droits de l'Homme (2005) and reports published by the Stephen Roth Institute, retrieved 24 February 2009: http://www.tau.ac.il/Antisemitism/CR.htm; and European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. Reports on France. retrieved 24 February 2009: http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/library/publications_en.asp

³Analysis of data found in Céreq, Enquêtes Génération 92 et Génération 98, and analysed by the Observatoire des Inégalités, retrieved 24 february 2009: http://www.inegalites.fr/spip.php?article86.

⁴Erik Cohen (2004) evaluates French Jewish population at 500,000 persons. As for Muslims in France, it is commonly said that there are 5 million Muslims in France, however this evaluation was questioned by demographer Michèle Tribalat (2003), asserting that there are probably only 3.7 million Muslims in France. 1.7 million French Muslims are immigrants, 1.7 million children of immigrants and 300,000 immigrants’ grandchildren. ‘L'Islam en chiffre’, L'Express, 4 December 2003.

⁵Dhimma is the legal status granted to Jews and Christians in Muslim countries, through which these minorities can benefit from a restricted religious freedom and protection from the authorities, in exchange of the payment of a poll tax. This status implies the superiority of the Muslim population and does not grant full legal capacity to minorities. In practice, the application of these rules has varied in different countries and over time.

⁶Clarisse Fabre, ‘Dieudonné interdit d'Olympia’, Le Monde, 20 February 2004.

⁷Dieudonné, interviewed by Le Journal du Dimanche, 8 February 2004. We have translated these citations and all the following ones from French into English.

⁸Dieudonné attributed this expression to the Israeli Historian Idith Zertal, in her book Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood. She denied having used this expression.

⁹Kémi Séba cited by Vincent Monnier, ‘Les provocs de la Tribu KA’, Le Nouvel Observateur, 8 June 2006, no. 2170.

¹⁰Dieudonné, interviewed by the Algerian newspaper L'Echo d'Oran, 20 February 2005. Published on the website of the Association Internationale des Droits de l'Homme, retrieved 15/11/10: http://www.aidh.org/antisem/dieud02.htm.

¹²Kémi Séba, interviewed by Novopress (a Far-Right press agency). Retrieved 20/02/09: http://fr.novopress.info/?p=5276#more-5276.

¹¹Kémi Séba's official website, retrieved 01/03/09: www.seba-wsr.com

¹³Dieudonné, interviewed by the Algerian newspaper L'Expression, 16 February 2005, published on the website of the Association Internationale des Droits de l'Homme, retrieved 15/11/10: http://www.aidh.org/antisem/dieud02.htm

¹⁴Luc Bronner, ‘L'alliance des extrémistes noirs et blancs’, Le Monde, 24 September 2008.

¹⁵L'alliance des extrémistes noirs et blancs, op. cit.

¹⁶Christiane Chombeau, ‘Le FN se rend en delegation au spectacle de Dieudonné’, Le Monde, 19 December 2006.

¹⁷Dieudonné, interviewed by Pierre Tévanian (MRAP, Paris) 14 July 2005, published by Dieudonné's website, Les Ogres. Retrieved 20/04/07: http://www.lesogres.org/article.php3?id_article=556

¹⁸Kémi Séba, cited in Philippe Brochen, ‘Un mois de prison requis contre le fondateur de Tribu Ka pour diffamation raciale’, Libération, 3 September 2009.