amid reports that the news director of state run Radio France International (RFI) was forced to resign because of alleged anti-Israeli bias. Speaking in Jerusalem as part of a trip to mend diplomatic fences following several anti-Semitic attacks in France, Minister Barnier said his government "has expressed again its determination to struggle" against hatred toward Jewish people.
"We will not compromise, we will never compromise." Barnier began a three-day state visit at a memorial for French Jews killed in the Holocaust before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, news reports said.
In July, Sharon angered French officials when he said France was experiencing "the wildest anti-Semitism" and that Jews should flee the country and come to Israel.
RFI HEAD RESIGNS
Meanwhile in Paris, Alain Menargues, head of news at RFI, resigned from his post Monday, October 18, after outrage over media remarks while promoting his new book "Sharon’s Wall" on the barrier being built to separate Israel from Palestinian territories, the French News Agency (AFP) reported.
Menargues more than once described Israel as "racist", earning condemnation from the government as well as RFI journalists and Jewish groups.
Speaking on LCI television on September 30, he reportedly said: "You say Israel is a democratic state, let me rapidly add that it is also a racist state …. The law of return only concerns Jews. What is the basis of Zionism? It is to make a state for the Jews."
"FIRST GHETTO"
On another occasion he said, "What was the first ghetto on the world? It was in Venice. Who made it? The Jews themselves, in order separate themselves from the rest. Afterwards Europe put them in ghettoes," AFP reported.
The foreign ministry described Menargues’ description of Israel as racist was "unacceptable" and journalists’ unions at RFI called on management to "assume its responsibilities."
The vice-president of the France-Israel association Gilles William Goldnadel said the remarks were made "in the context of a deep-rooted anti-Jewishness and the fact they were made by a director of RFI, the voice of France abroad, shows there is a sense of total impunity," AFP said. Menargues was quoted as saying that he denies the charges because "Israel is a country like any other, and like the others it must be criticized."
Jewish groups have expressed concern about what they say is France’s bias toward the Arab world.
