"Altogether I have to advocate to our brothers in France: Move
to Israel as early as possible," Sharon told a meeting of an
American Jewish association in Jerusalem on Sunday.
"That's what I say to Jews all around the world but there [
France] I think it's a must. They have to move immediately."
Sharon praised the French government for taking action against
the "spread of the wildest anti-Semitism", but said it was
struggling against the impact of the growth of the Muslim
community.
France is home to Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim
communities, estimated at 600,000 and five million respectively.
According to French interior ministry statistics, the number of
racist incidents has soared this year.
Racist incidents
There were 135 physical acts (vandalism, arson, assault, and
attacks or attempted attacks) against Jews in the first half of
2004, compared to 127 for all of 2003, according to the statistics.
For the same period, there were another 95 acts against other
ethnic groups - mainly those of North African Arab background -
compared to 92 for all of last year.
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Jacques Chirac has condemned
racist violence |
France was gripped by a bout of soul-searching about
anti-Semitism last week when a 23-year-old woman initially told
police that a gang of six youths had accosted her on a Paris
suburban train.
She claimed they slashed her clothes and drew swastikas on her
stomach after mistaking her for a Jew.
But she later admitted she had made up the entire
incident and begged forgiveness in a televised apology.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said in the aftermath of the
alleged attack: "Anti-Semitism is a disgrace. We want to fight
this sort of intolerable racism."
Israeli demography
"There is also something wrong in our society: it's the
indifference to violence," he said.
French President Jacques Chirac this year excluded racist crimes
from the traditional blanket clemency for prisoners he signs every
July for Bastille Day.
|
"There is also something wrong in our society:
it's the indifference
to violence"
Jean-Pierre Raffarin,
French prime minister |
Recent racist acts in France have included the son of a rabbi
being beaten by five youths near his Paris home, a rabbi in another
suburb being struck and insulted, and a 15-year-old Jewish boy being
assaulted at an ice-skating rink near the capital.
Jewish and Muslim tombs in cemeteries around France have also
been defaced with graffiti, notably neo-Nazi slogans and symbols.
Israel has traditionally encouraged Jews from all over the world to emigrate to Israel.
Israeli politicians have warned if more Jews do not arrive, then Pales
tinians will eventually outnumber Jews in the country.