I saw this post late last night and wanted to post a comment to it then, but presumed the original post would be taken down immediately so that it wouldn`t be worth it. Unfortunately it hasn`t been.

PLEASE REMOVE THE ABOVE POST IMMEDIATELY.

The insinutation of the person who posted the article is obviously that the extent of anti-semitic attacks is being exaggerated by Jewish people for some reason. This is an extremely dangerous tactic insinuation which is far from being historically unprecedented.

Anti-Semites FUCK OFF away from Indymedia!
No platform for anti-semites, racists, sexists or homophobes on Indymedia!

Great idea - never mind if the report is true, lets ban it because then people might think that racist attacks never happen.

People, this is the end of logic.

And you might like to reread the last paragraph, where the very real danger of racism and anti-semitism is stressed.

in response to the above request for removal, i think there is a lot more
to this issue than posting the article in support of anti-semitism. The article draws
attention to the danger of exaggerated stories that inflame opinion, a very damaging thing indeed. And the recipients of this anger would be the N. African community. This is a very sensitive subject, but the truth is very important - these stories if untrue have to be put right, irrespective of which ethnic or religious group is involved.
best
Neil

And asdf etc is a notorious one.

You fuck off hysterical one.

And your argument is transparent also.

The woman in question was not Jewish. Nor was she attacked.

The claims were wrongly made by a person with mental health problems, blown out of proportion by their sensitive nature and unfortunate timing. See the following from the Guardian:


Anti-semitic attack hoax hits raw nerve
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1260693,00.html

Amelia Gentleman in Paris
Wednesday July 14, 2004
The Guardian

The story horrified a country already sensitive to the charge of growing anti-semitism.

A young mother with a baby daughter described how she had been robbed and physically and verbally assaulted while on a Paris suburban train.

As fellow passengers looked on passively, a gang of six supposedly chopped off her hair, slashed open her clothes with knives, knocked her child out of its pram, and shouted anti-semitic abuse, she alleged.

Coming 24 hours after Jacques Chirac launched a national campaign against the spread of anti-semitism, the president broke off his weekend to condemn the attack as "odious". The prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, called on France's citizens to be "courageous" in the face of such "intolerable" violence.

The woman's tale was headline news across Europe, but by yesterday it had taken a remarkable twist.

It became clear that not only was the attack not anti-semitic in any traditional sense (the victim was not a Jew) but also it was not an attack at all. The young woman confessed to having made it all up, authorities said.

Conscious of the case's extreme sensitivity, police had previously mobilised every resource to hunt for the attackers - but with no success. A thorough study of CCTV footage at the stations where they allegedly got on and got off found no trace of the six north African teenagers.

Nor did it find the alleged victim, identified only as Marie, or her pushchair. A well-publicised appeal for witnesses drew a blank. No station worker remembers seeing anyone in distress, and the ticket collector to whom the young mother says she first recounted her story has no memory of the occasion.

Marie's mother then admitted her daughter had some mental health problems and a tendency to fantasise. Anonymous acquaintances told the media she often fabricated unlikely stories, and police sources yesterday revealed she had on six separate occasions between 1999 and 2002 alleged an assault; none of the six had been substantiated.

The story hit a nerve in France, coming just as the government published figures showing a surge in anti-Jewish attacks (510 acts or threats in the first six months of 2004, compared with 593 for the whole of 2003). The suburb of Sarcelles, scene of the supposed attack, is an emblem for France's fear of communautarisme - an impoverished community, often the scene of violence between its large Jewish and Muslim populations, on the fringes of mainstream French society.

This symbolism made the story irresistible. Le Monde dedicated much of its front page yesterday, as well as a page inside and two angry editorials; Le Figaro splashed a picture of a suburban station, under the headline Train of Hatred. International media (this paper included) reported the incident. On Monday night several hundred protesters demonstrated in Paris in support of the victim, bearing banners declaring Resistance to all Racism! and Fuck tous les Cisteras ! [word-play on "racistes" in verlan, a slang popular in Paris suburbs] Another march scheduled for last night had to be cancelled.

The government yesterday justified its precipitate response. A spokesman, Jean-François Copé, said that for all the credibility problems with the story, "the reality is that there has been an explosion of racist and anti-semitic acts which we need to combat".

Members of France's Jewish community said the familiarity of the claim had triggered the outrage. Menahem Gourary, director of the Jewish Agency in Europe, said: "The government had to speak out quickly, because they so often in the past they've made the mistake of trying to calm the situation by not reacting at all. They responded like this because the story was eminently plausible." He cited eight incidents on Paris public transport over 10 months.

SOS Racisme said it was unfortunate north African youths had been scapegoated, but added: "The sad fact is that there have been a great many of these anti-semitic attacks in recent months."

The inference/suggestion of the original article seems to be that this isn't an isolated incident, and that the extent of anti-semitism has been exaggerated. Thats what I took from it anyway.

Thora luv, if you want to 'infer' stuff that isn't actually written down anywhere in the article then that's your privilege - but don't confuse the issue by doing it on our time.