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Macron Pledges ‘Uncompromising’ Fight Against Antisemitism in Address to French Jewish Leaders
French President Emmanuel Macron receives a vintage poster from the infamous Dreyfus trial of the 1890s from Crif president Yonathan Arfi. Photo: Reuters/Yoan Valat
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged an “uncompromising” fight against the antisemitism that has erupted across France since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel in a speech to Jewish leaders on Monday evening.
Macron was speaking during a ceremony at the Élysée Palace marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of Crif, the umbrella organization representing the Jewish community in France. As well as Crif’s top leadership, several members of the French cabinet were also present, including Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
Acknowledging Crif’s creation in Jan. 1944 as the Nazi occupation of France was faltering, Macron paid tribute to “Jews from all walks of life who came together to awaken a glimmer of hope.” However, he added that Monday’s ceremony conjured “mixed feelings” because of its proximity to the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel, which the president described as “the worst antisemitic massacre of our century.”
Addressing the rise of antisemitism in France, where antisemitic outrages rose by over 1,000 percent in the final three months of 2023 compared with the previous year, with over 1,200 incidents reported, Macron declared: “Every time the slightest trace of antisemitism reappears, we will be as uncompromising as we have always been.”
Macron summarized the dilemma facing French Jews by saying, “The question that many ask, and I hear it: will they be able to be French and Jewish, believers or not, be called Sarah or Ilan, be active in a student association, display a mezuzah without being referred to an identity, summoned to explain yourself or even to step aside or run away? Will they be able to study in places of education that have sometimes become places of antisemitic impulses and imprecations? Will they be able to live in a country of memory and hope where the memory of the Shoah is carried and transmitted? Will they be able to live equal and fraternal?”
Macron also addressed the recent controversy at the elite Sciences Po university in Paris, where Jewish students claimed they were prevented from entering a lecture hall by pro-Hamas demonstrators. He said that an investigation into the incident had been opened and that “the government will ensure that the republican order is respected.” Last week, Crif issued a call for a parliamentary commission to examine rising antisemitism in French universities.
Crif President Yonathan Arfi — who presented Macron with a vintage poster from the 1890s proclaiming the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, the French army officer falsely convicted of espionage in a landmark case that sparked antisemitic violence across France — sounded a slight note of discord in his response to the president. Referring to Macron’s recent remarks urging more international support for Ukraine as it battles the ongoing Russian invasion, Arfi asked whether Israel deserved “the same solidarity.”
Replying, Macron distinguished between solidarity with Israel and unconditional agreement with the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Defending and loving Israel, wanting its security, does not mean subscribing to all the choices of a democratic government of the moment,” he declared, adding a call for “a political solution without which there will never be peace and security for Israel.”
The post Macron Pledges ‘Uncompromising’ Fight Against Antisemitism in Address to French Jewish Leaders first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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