MUSLIM-JEWISH RELATIONS IN FRANCE FOLLOWING GAZA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001442

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL FR
SUBJECT: MUSLIM-JEWISH RELATIONS IN FRANCE FOLLOWING GAZA
WAR

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Kathy Allegrone, Reasons 1.
4(b),(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: During a series of recent
meetings, French officials responsible for developing and
implementing GOF policy toward organized religion told poloff
that the January 2009 conflict in Gaza continues to strain
institutional and communal relations between France's two
largest religious minorities, Muslims and Jews. The past and
present Directors of the Interior Ministry's (MoI) Central
Office of Religions reported that political developments in
the Middle East function as a "centrifugal force" pulling
apart two major religious communities in France. Although
the Gaza fighting no longer impinges upon the daily life of
the vast majority of members of both religious groups, and
contact between rabbis and imams continues at the local
level, French officials in the MoI and MFA characterized
relations between Muslim and Jewish leaders in France as
tense since January 2009.


2. (C) COMMENT: Widespread media attention to the Goldstone
Report appears to have prolonged the impact in France of the
conflict in Gaza. French officials responsible for GOF
policy toward organized religion seem to be focused on the
external sources of tension between Muslims and Jews in
France; during a series of meetings, they made little
mention, and offered scant information, about homegrown
factors that might be contributing to inter-religious tension
in France, such as growing unemployment. Moreover, they
appeared to share the general GOF aversion to statistics and
surveys, drawing on personal opinions and experiences when
describing broad-based conclusions. Post will continue to
engage with these and other French officials, and with
leaders in both the Muslim and Jewish communities in order to
facilitate dialogue and reduce tension. END SUMMARY AND
COMMENT.


3. (U) This cable is the first in a series on the political
situation and political influence of religious minorities in
France. Future cables will report the perspectives of
leaders of minority religious groups and assess their impact
on French foreign policy.

FORMAL TIES BETWEEN GOF AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS GROUPS
-------------- --------------


4. (SBU) The Central Office of Religions in the MoI aims to
enforce and implement the laws in France pertinent to
organized religion, and to liaise between the government and
religious groups, according to Bertrand Gaume, who has served
as Director of the Office since April 2008. Bernard Godard,
who held the same position from 2002 - 2008, told poloff that
officials in the Central Office of Religions also monitor the
activities of religious groups in France. In addition, Gaume
said, they foster inter-faith dialogue and mediate disputes.
This GOF role in religious affairs dates back to the 1905
passage of a law which strictly separated church and state,
and which led to the formalization of ties between central
state institutions and recognized religious groups, according
to Stephane Chmelewsky, the Foreign Minister's Counselor for
Religious Affairs at the MFA. The GOF created the Counselor
for Religious Affairs at the MFA in 1921, Chmelewsky noted,
after France re-established diplomatic relations with the
Vatican, which had deteriorated following the passage of the
1905 law. Then, in a significant new development, the MFA
created on June 1, 2009 a "Religions Bureau," reportedly the
first in French history, according to head of the Bureau,
Joseph Maila. Maila told poloff the Bureau aims to educate
and sensitize French government officials on current
religious issues outside of France. It focuses on
international religious movements and their political
implications for France, and it operates independently of
Chmelewsky in his capacity as the Minister's Counselor for
Religious Affairs.

PRE-GAZA PROGRESS
--------------


5. (C) In their role as facilitators of inter-faith
dialogue, MoI officials have worked closely with the official
leaders of France's Muslim and Jewish communities. In recent
years, according to both Godard and Gaume, they had
progressively brought the groups closer together, culminating
in an unprecedented meeting in the autumn of 2008 between the
leaders of the two largest minority religious organizations
in France, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions
in France (CRIF, founded in 1943) and the French Council of
the Muslim Faith (CFCM, founded in 2003). Andre David
Azoulay, Royal Counselor to Moroccan King Mohammed VI,
facilitated this meeting, the first of its kind since the
founding of CFCM. The MoI planned to organize further such

PARIS 00001442 002 OF 003


exchanges. (NOTE: Andre Azoulay has served as Royal
Counselor to King Mohammed VI since 1999. He is the most
senior Jewish official in the Moroccan Government and has
traditionally served as the Palace's link with the Moroccan
Jewish Community. END NOTE.)

BREAKDOWN DURING GAZA CONFLICT
--------------


6. (C) Then the January fighting in Gaza led to the rupture
of contact between these leaders of the Muslim and Jewish
communities in France, according to Gaume and Godard.
Then-Minister of the Interior Michele Alliot-Marie
facilitated a single meeting, on January 5, between the
presidents of CRIF and CFCM, during which both presidents
called for calm and urged French citizens to avoid
transposing tensions from the Middle East into France. Soon,
however, in public and in private, "very angry words were
exchanged by the leaders of CRIF and CFCM," Gaume said. CFCM
leaders referred to the war in Gaza as "a genocide without
precedent." The Union of Islamic Organizations in France
(UOIF, founded in 1983) -- which, according to Gaume and
Godard, maintains ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in various
countries -- also significantly hardened its rhetoric during
the war. Before January 2009, Godard said, the UOIF had
generally adopted a moderate, cautious approach to political
developments in France and the Middle East; during the war,
its leaders began to declare their support for Hamas more
clearly and assertively than ever before. At the same time,
Chmelewsky reported, leaders of CRIF told GOF officials that
they were surprised by the size and the intensity of public
protests against Israel during the war. They believed some
protesters linked Israel's actions to the Jewish community in
France, and so they began to feel vulnerable, Chmelewsky
reported.

POST-GAZA PARALYSIS
--------------


7. (C) Since the war in Gaza, Gaume said, it has been
impossible to facilitate dialogue between the leaders of CFCM
and CRIF. "Gaza has had huge consequences for the Muslim and
Jewish communities," he declared. Godard described a
"radicalized discourse" among UOIF and other Muslim leaders
following the war. The violent images circulating on the
internet had a chilling effect, he explained; people in both
religious communities became more sensitive and more cautious
in their interactions with each other. "This has not yet
changed," he noted. For Chmelewsky at the MFA, the war in
Gaza demonstrated that dialogue among Jews and Muslims in
France "is guided by developments in the Near East." The
"primary obstacle" to improving relations between the two
communities is not in France, but international politics.

FRENCH OFFICIALS SHARE BROADER REFLECTIONS
--------------


8. (C) Indeed, Gaume described Middle East politics as a
"centrifugal force" pulling apart the Muslim and Jewish
communities in France. Joseph Maila of the new "Religions
Bureau" in the MFA agreed with this conclusion. Maila
confirmed that tensions between Muslim and Jewish leaders in
France have reached high levels this year, as described by
other GOF officials, but he declined to discuss the details
or sources of the tension. (NOTE: Maila explained that his
role is to educate and advise French diplomats, rather than
to conduct any form of "religious diplomacy" within France.
END NOTE.) More broadly, Godard claimed to have witnessed a
shift toward the hardline perception of the Middle East
conflict among leaders in both religions. Not only have CFCM
and UOIF adopted the position of more severe Muslim critics
of Israel, he said, but CRIF has also changed: its leaders
used to agree most often with the Labor Party in Israel; now,
their positions hue more closely to those of Likud.
Regardless of their views about Israel's policies, Chmelewsky
argued, Jews in France have a sense that an organized effort
to influence French policy toward the Middle East will not
have the same impact as that of the pro-Israel lobby in the
U.S. on American policy toward the region.

CONTACTS CONTINUE AT LOCAL LEVEL
--------------


9. (C) Despite continuing tensions and lack of dialogue at
the level of national leaders, rabbis and imams are "always
in touch" at the local level, according to Gaume. (NOTE:
Post's Public Affairs section has observed growing contact
among Jewish, Muslim and Catholic religious leaders,
including in local communities, prisons, and the military.
END NOTE.) Gaume said he learned about these contacts during
visits to religious groups around the country in 2009: "We

PARIS 00001442 003 OF 003


(at the MoI) must get out and see what's happening. We are
involved in politics, after all." He also said he has
learned that many Jewish leaders in France want to
re-commence dialogue with Muslim leaders, but it is not
possible at the moment, because of the lingering, divisive
impact of the war in Gaza.
RIVKIN