OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – French Jews rebuffed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s call to leave and move to Israel "immediately."

The secretary general of the rabbinical association in France, Haim Korsia, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Sunday, July 18, that a mass exodus of French Jews from France is not considered at all.

He said Jews living in France are French citizens and part and parcel of society.

Though French Jews are experiencing hard times in France, he added, they should improve these conditions.

Sharon has earlier Sunday urged all French Jews to leave France "as early as possible" in protest at what he called "soaring anti-Semitism."

"Altogether I have to advocate to our brothers in France: Move to Israel as early as possible," AFP quoted Sharon as telling a meeting of an American Jewish association in Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem).

"That's what I say to Jews all around the world but there [France] I think it's a must. They have to move immediately."

France is home to Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities, estimated at 600,000 and five million respectively.

A French woman, who claimed she was the subject of an "anti-Semitic" attack by six youths of North African appearance on a train in the suburbs of Paris, was taken into police custody Tuesday, July 13, after admitting to having invented the assault story.

Pascal Boniface, the director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Studies, said the extensive coverage the hoax had received in French media demonstrated a double-standard approach in dealing with racist attacks in the European country.

"At a time when anti-Semitism crimes soar, we also find another kind of racism targeting the younger generations of immigrants, which is poorly covered by media," Boniface told IslamOnline.net.

Branding Sharon's language "unacceptable", a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said Paris had demanded an explanation.

"We have been informed of comments made today by Sharon calling on the Jews of France to immigrate to Israel.

"We immediately made contact with the Israeli authorities to ask for an explanation of these unacceptable comments," Reuters news agency quoted the French spokesman as saying.

In an attempt to smooth over tension with Paris, a spokesman for Sharon said the Prime Minister had praised France for its "strong stance against anti-Semitism".

"The Prime Minister admits, however, that the widespread anti-Semitism in France is due to the demographic factor, that there is a large Muslim populace who are hostile to Israel," Raanan Gissin said.

"He is not telling them to flee because of anti-Semitism, rather that this should be a contributing factor [for emigration]," Gissin said, adding Sharon called on all Jews to move to Israel so they could live "a full Jewish life".

Racist attacks have also soared against the Muslim community, not only in France but across Europe.

Several mosques in France have recently come under a string of racist attacks and arsons.

Mosques and Muslim graves in two cemeteries have been defaced with swastikas and Neo-Nazi slogans last month, while gunshots were fired at a mosque in northern France.

On June 27, racist slogans have been sprayed on the wall of a mosque near Paris.