An Israeli journalist writing for the Adelson-owned, Makor Rishon/NRG, devised an Israeli version of Charlie Hebdo to embarrass the Muslims of Paris. It is ‘gotcha journalism’ of the worst sort. The reporter, Zvika Klein, donned a kippah and tzitzit (he is not Orthodox) and spent ten hours roaming the streets of various Paris neighborhoods. He focussed particularly on Muslim neighborhoods hoping he would provoke an especially vehement or abusive response. He succeeded. Several passersby spat or glowered at him or shouted “Vive Les Palestiniens!” To further reinforce the point that Arabs are animals, he walked through other neighborhoods where he was treated civilly.
This is journalism of the most cynical, debased sort. Why? Because Klein doesn’t plan to walk through Tel Aviv’s poorest neighborhoods dressed as an African refugee. Nor does he plan to walk through Tapuach or Yizhar wearing a keffiyeh. If he had, he likely would’ve been killed rather than just spat upon. He doesn’t plan to walk through Meah Shearim kissing his boyfriend. When he tries these stunts and publicizes the reactions, then we’ll know he’s trying to be fair and balanced rather than an Islamophobic provocateur.
Also note the video condenses 10 hours of walking into 1:36 seconds. What other sorts of responses are in the other nine hours and 59 minutes? The other aspect of this gimmick that is objectionable is that he refused to speak to anyone he met. This makes him a palimpset onto which the passersby project their own views. But it also prevents any passersby from understanding what he is doing and why. As I say, if he did something similar in many Israeli neighborhoods he would have a far worse reaction.
In a related matter, Bibi Netanyahu has once again exploited the Danish shootings to call upon all Jews in Europe to make aliyah. The only problem is that with few exceptions they’re not responding. Denmark’s chief rabbi rejected Bibi’s call saying the place for Danish Jews was in Denmark. Despite a temporary increase in aliyah from France over the past two years, the overall Jewish population in western Europe is increasing. The numbers of Jews in two of the three most populous European Jewish societies (Germany and France) have each grown since 1945. German Jewish numbers rose from 45,000 in 1945 to 230,000 now (much of the increase comes from Israeli yordim); and French Jewry rose from in 180,000 in 1945 to 310,000 today. The places where Jewish population is decreasing most is in eastern Europe and Russia. These have historically been the poorest, most socially fragmented societies in Europe. Anti-Semitism is less a motivator for immigration than economics and societal dysfunction.
Richard, hatred isn’t a competition. Why must Klein also “walk through Tel Aviv’s poorest neighborhoods dressed as an African refugee” or “Tapuach or Yizhar wearing a keffiyeh” to make his point? Racism is a problem in Israel, a point you’ve made here repeatedly, and antisemitism is a problem in France. What does one thing have to do with the other?
Well, both are about Jewish power. They are both characterized by the effort of Jews to isolate, marginalize and demonize any group or individual challenging Jewish special prerogatives and power in a political/social context. “Anti-semitism” is a construct which presents Jews as innocent victims of malicious others and not as a powerful group with specific group interests. When victims of Jewish power complain, they are deemed irrational (“anti-semitic”) by that power such that the power remains shielded and unaccountable. Jewish power cannot barely be questioned. I think both Israeli racism and the “new” anti-semitism in France are about such power.
I don’t know what to tell you if you think antisemitism is only a construct. So what do you call it when non-Jews express hatred of Jews and when that hatred provokes oppression and violence?
The “anti-semitism” you identify is an explanatory device which focuses on the ill-defined ethnicity of the target and not the power of the target group, a group which perhaps violates and harms others in the pursuit of its group interests. It is not necessarily by virtue of being born Jewish (ill-defined) that someone might be chosen as a target to terrorize, avoid, insult or murder but by virtue of the perceived injuries endured at the hands of target group or the perceived injustices meted out by the target group. This is not good ole’ racism of the kind that suggests that, for example, Jews are simply born demons. Rather, such deaths or such “oppression” (where are Jews “oppressed” anyway?) may be casualties of an ongoing armed conflict between Jewish interests and other interests.
Calling this sort of blowback “racism” is to suggest that it has no foundation, no reason, that Jews are innocent victims. Certainly, a particular Jew in Denmark may not subscribe to the Israel policies of dispossession and appropriation of others property etc. and yet be identified as a member of the offending power group. Many many gentiles have died at the hands of Jews over the decades of Israel’s expansion as a ethnic state. Many many more than the reverse. The Zionist project has been, in our time, underwritten by world Jewry even though I personally do not subscribe to it. Jews must take responsibility for that support and should not be surprised by its predictable consequences.
France is a country that, despite problems, is far more functional, and stable and tolerant than Israel. In Israel, the government itself breeds hate & intolerance. Not so in France.
That’s neither here nor there. My point is that racism in Israel doesn’t mean that there isn’t antisemitism in France and vice versa. Both deserve to be exposed. But why are you more comfortable condemning Israeli racism than you are European (in this case French) or Muslim antisemitism?
@ djf: Because Israeli racism leads directly to murder, and in the future, possibly genocide. Israeli racism maintains the Occupation & constant war with Arabs. That in turn leads to an anti-Semitic response from some Arabs.
This is not he-said, she-said. It’s not oh how terrible, both sides are so bad, let’s blame them equally. No, Israel is far more powerful & dangerous & incendiary in this mix.
Richard, I think it’s exactly the reverse. But at least I can criticize both.
The population figures in the final paragraph aren’t accurate. See link to en.wikipedia.org
You trust Wikipedia over a Hebrew University demographer whose figures were used for the Pew population count? Sorry, I don’t.
I didn’t notice that, the number of 310.000 Jews in France is clearly wrong. All demographic censuses here say between 550.000-600.000 Jews in France. The rising is very much due to the arrival of Jews from Algéria after the decolonization in 1962 (Algerian Jews became French citizens by the Décret Crémieux in 1871, and latertens of thousand of Jews from Tunisia and Morocco after their independance in 1956.
I’m busy right now, I’ll find links later in the day and post them.
According to Sergio della Pergola, the Israeli demographer, there are 478.000 Jews in France. link to jewishdatabank.org
According to Akadem, there are 600.000 Jews in France, others (like CRIF, the main organization representing Jews in France) say 530-550.000.
It’s difficult to fix as religious and ethnic classifications are illegal in France.
@ Deir Yassin: The Pew study says the 2010 numbers are based on a Pew Research Center Global Religious Landscape survey. I don’t know what assumptions or research was used to estimate Jewish population. It would be interesting to use Segio della Pergola’s numbers for all the different years designated in the graphic. Then you’d be comparing apples to apples instead of apples to oranges.
I didn’t look at Pergola’s numbers, where he got them from etc, but public speech in France mostly mentions 600.000 Jews (but that doesn’t mean it’s correct). In fact, it’s commonly stated that Jews represent 1% of the French population: 600.000 out of 60 millions, but the population is closer to 66 millions by now, and probably the 600.000 is exagerated. And who is considered a Jew ? No population censuses ask that kind of questions, and I imagine that Pergola being an Israeli doesn’t have the same criteria as some French citizens who consider themselves as Jews.
I’ve noticed on other occasions that Pew numbers were different from with French numbers, particularly on the Muslim population (heavily exagerated in many articles on the subjetc).
@Jack
“You may not have noticed, but France isn’t where the trouble is. ”
You should tell Zvika Klein that. For the rest I fail to understand what point you are trying to make.
@Arie
” somebody would have taken it on himself to walk through a staunch catholic neighbourhood of Belfast ”
You may not have noticed, but France isn’t where the trouble is. The trouble is actually in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel.
What do you suppose would have happened if someone walked through the same Muslim neighborhoods in France waving the black flag of ISIS?
@ Jack
He didn’t walk through any “Muslim” neighbourhoods, at least no in the one minute and something that we’ve seen. Just in case you don’t know: there aren’t any “Muslim” neighbourhoods in Paris, and the only suburb we see in the video is Sarcelles (where Dominique Strauss-Kahn used to be mayor), it’s one-third Jewish, has the largest concentration of Chaldean Christians in France, maybe even in Europe, and also many Muslims. It makes me wonder: what percentage of Muslims does it take to be a ‘Muslim’ neghbourhood ?
Maybe you’ve been influenced by the No-Go Zone hoax from Fox News claiming there are Sharia-zones in Paris where no White Man puts his feet. In case, you’ve missed it, Fox News has apologized for the lies, but the Mayor of Paris isn’t satisfied so there’s a lawsuit coming, and I think France should consider one against this Hasbarista too:
link to newsweek.com
If during the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland somebody would have taken it on himself to walk through a staunch catholic neighbourhood of Belfast with an orange sash decorating his torso would we have been surprised at his report to have been spat upon? No. We would actually have been surprised to see him return with all his limbs in working order.
What did this man, Zvika Klein, actually try to prove? That there is free floating and mindless anti semitism in this world searching for an appropriate victim? This is as credible as the Orange man declaring that he didn’t have the faintest idea as to why he wasn’t greeted with a hail fellow well met in that catholic neighbourhood.
The attempt to suggest that an increase in anti-semitic incidents in Europe (exaggerated as the reports about it often are) has nothing to do with what is being done to the Palestinians is either sheer self deception or, worse, a matter of rank mendacity.
Netanyahu has done his level best to ensure that Jews are now often, however unfairly, seen as collectively sharing in the guilt for this. Hasn’t he, the top depredator, declared on any conceivable occasion that he represents World Jewry?
I don’t think the linkage is unfair at all, consequences notwithstanding. But for Jewish support, Israel would not be, or at least not Israel as it is today. All those who have lavished support on Israel, and felt good about it over the years, should be held accountable, not murdered in the streets of course, but accountable.
@Richard “Also note the video condenses 10 hours of walking into 1:36 seconds. What other sorts of responses are in the other nine hours and 59 minutes?” – you link the article but neglect to tell of the rest of their day. The kid asking his mother whether they don’t know it is risky etc’. The clip was taken with a GoPro hidden in backpack so might have missed some of the ‘action’.
What about John Howard Griffin, the white author of ‘Black Like Me’, who posed as a ‘Negro’ in the segregationist South. Was Griffin’s sojourn, ‘ journalism of the most cynical, debased sort’?
At what about the Irish born, Swedish Journalist, who donned a kippa and went for an unpleasant walk in the streets of Maalmo, Sweden? Was that a gimmick? Gotcha journalism?
link to ynetnews.com
link to youtube.com
Ahh….but if a Jew dresses like a Jew and goes for a walk…..
John Howard Griffin did NOT enter a community and remain silent the entire time as Klein did. Nor did he provoke Blacks to abuse him as Klein did. He spoke and interacted with his Black interlocutors. He was also a white man pretending to be Black. Unlike Klein who was an Orthodox Jew attempting to provoke Muslims into hating him.
If he had worn a white hood, dressed as the KKK and waited to find out how Blacks received him, given the current context of relations in Europe, that might’ve been a more apt comparison.
But in today’s context Griffin’s disguise would not be received the same way it was in the 1960s. It would not be permissible or appropriate for someone to wear a mask and try to deceive a community into believing he was one of them when he wasn’t.
What about my comparisons to Israel. Do you think Klein could walk through South T.A. dressed as an African refugee w/o being harrassed by the Border Police? ANd could he dress in a keffiyeh and walk through Tapuach. You’ve somehow neglected those options. Hypocrite.
@Richard – The border police ‘stopping’ and African is doing it’s job, just like police along the border with Mexico. Also clearly you haven’t been to South Tel-Aviv in recent years. They will need 100’s of officers if they actually did that.
Your Tapuach makes even less sense. You can compere that to someone with a big flag of Israel going through Gaza not strolling quite streets in Paris.
@The idea that a Border Policeman is ‘just doing his job’ when he pours lye into a restaurant cooling pit so it’s African refugees owner may never use it again is pathetic as are you for defending these scummy human beings.
@Richard
I remember the incident differently. The police shut down an immigrant run illegal restaurant operating without a permit. The police poured lye into a pot of food on the stove. Not nice. But the police were doing there job.