An Israeli newspaper is reporting that the organization representing French Jews has decided not to renew dialog with the French Muslim Brotherhood as a result of “virulent” anti-Israeli rhetoric. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post:
The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), the umbrella body of French Jewry, will not renew dialogue with French Muslim groups that equated Operation Cast Lead in Gaza with the Holocaust, the group’s vice president, Meyer Habib, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.During Operation Cast Lead, some Muslim organizers of pro-Palestinian demonstrations equated Israel’s actions with the Nazi Holocaust, and even carried banners that read “death to Jews.” One group in particular, the influential Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF), was so virulent in its anti-Israel rhetoric that French Jewry’s umbrella body cut all ties and dialogue with the group. “We understand the Muslim support for the Palestinians. It’s as natural as the Jewish support for the Israelis,” Habib said. “I was an organizer of a 15,000-person demonstration for Israel [during the fighting]. “But within the [UOIF] demonstrations there were signs calling for ‘death to the Jews.’ Some of the organizers from respectable organizations were comparing Israel to the [Nazis] in the Holocaust. “These are dangerous comparisons,” he said. “Until they apologize – which I don’t think will happen anytime soon – we will have no contact with them.” Habib was reiterating the policy expressed in an early March speech by CRIF president Richard Prasquier, in which Prasquier warned that the Gaza operation had shown a resurgence of anti-Semitism in France.
As reported in a previous post, during the Israeli Gaza military action, the UOIF issued a statement saying that the Israeli army was deliberately targeting civilian homes “in order to sow terror by killing as many innocent people, women and children.” The statement spoke of an “unprecedented genocide against the Palestinian people.”As that post noted, such rhetoric was a common theme of the global Muslim Brotherhood during that time.
The UOIF is generally considered to be the Muslim Brotherhood in France and is a member of the Federation of the Islamic Organizations in Europe, the umbrella group for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.