A Jewish social center in Paris was destroyed in an arson attack on Sunday, and anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas were found inside the building. A hitherto unknown Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the act. In a statement on the internet, a group calling itself "Jamat Ansar al-Jihad al-Islamiya" said the attack was in response to the desecration of Muslim graves and "also to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the fire that ravaged the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem". However, police have cast doubt on the authenticity of the group's claim.
Responding to the incident, the French president, Jacques Chirac, expressed his solidarity with the French Jewish community. Prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the perpetrators could face up to 20 years in prison, or life, under France's new anti-racism law. It was the second anti-Semitic act in Paris in little more than a week, after vandals daubed a swastika and wrote "Death to the Jews" on a wall in front of the famous Nôtre Dame cathedral. Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë has proposed concrete measures to fight anti-Semitism. They would include reinforced security at sensitive buildings, increased video-surveillance and an advertising campaign. The city of Paris would use all available billboards for a campaign to increase public awareness against anti-Semitism, racism and all kinds of discrimination from September.
Meanwhile, leading members of the Jewish community have expressed dissatisfaction with the timing of a visit by Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom to France, which begins today. Roger Cukierman, the president of the Council for Jewish Organizations in France, told Israeli radio that this was a French national issue and not an international problem, and that Shalom's urgent visit was unnecessary. Israel's minister for the Diaspora, Nathan Sharansky, praised efforts by the French authorities to combat anti-Semitism but also said that it must realize that anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism were two sides of the same coin.
