French Jews demonstrate qgainst anti-Semitic
French Jews demonstrate qgainst anti-SemiticLigue de Defense Juive

The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), the umbrella organization of all French Jewish organizations called on French Jews to refrain from protests against the parliament's December 2 vote on the recognition of the Palestinian state. 

The non-binding vote will take place Tuesday at the National Assembly. It is a draft motion that Socialist Party lawmakers submitted last month, following the passing of similar motions in the parliament of Great Britain, Ireland, and Spain. 

On Friday, some 250 protestors, most of them Jewish, demonstrated near the parliament with posters, containing among other slogans "Hamas+Fatah=Terrorist state."

The demonstration was organized by a coalition of French Jewish organizations, including groups that do not belong to CRIF, including the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), Siona and the French LDF - France's local Jewish Defense League counterpart - and Beitar. 

According to left-leaning French daily, Liberation, the protestors would now allow AFP journalists near the gathering. This refusal was meant as a punishment for the news agency's coverage of Israel, which protesters called biased. 

“Following the disgraceful coverage of the attack on the synagogue in Jerusalem, AFP journalists were ejected from the demonstration,” LDJ wrote on its Twitter account. 

LDJ is referring to the November 18 terror attack, where two Palestinian terrorists massacred Jewish worshippers at a Jerusalem synagogue in Har Nof. Four rabbis were murdered while at prayer and one policeman was killed in a shootout with the terrorists. 

French lawmakers Meyer Habib and Claude Goasguen, who oppose recognizing Palestine as a state, met with the protesters. Both are members of centrist parties. Habib is a part of UMI, and Goasguen from UMP. 

“Recognizing a Palestinian state is recognizing Hamas,” Habib said, before urging protesters to gather outside parliament also during the vote itself.

Nadine Morano, a lawmaker for UMP at the European Parliament, made similar comments on Friday, when she told the France Info radio that recognizing a Palestinian state was tantamount to recognizing the terrorist group Islamic State. 

However, despite this show of support, CRIF President Roger Cukierman told Liberation that he was against how “a part of the community so quickly goes out to protest on the street at every occasion.”

He added that “what is needed is calm, dialogue and negotiation.”

Last month, however, CRIF warned that the vote risked worsening France anti-Semitism problem, which reached new heights during Operation Protective Edge.