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PARIS,
October 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An uproar over
anti-Israel remarks cost Alain Menargues, head of news at the
state-owned Radio France International, his job Monday, October 18.
Promoting
his new book “Sharon's Wall” on the controversial separation wall
being built to separate Israel from Palestinian centers of population,
Menargues more than once described Israel as racist.
Speaking
on LCI television on September 30, he said: “You say Israel is a
democratic state, let me rapidly add that it is also a racist state
.... The law of return only concerns Jews. What is the basis of
Zionism? It is to make a state for the Jews.”
On
another occasion he said, “What was the first ghetto on the world?
It was in Venice. Who made it? The Jews themselves, in order separate
themselves from the rest. Afterwards Europe put them in ghettoes.”
The
separation wall has been deemed illegal by the International Court of
Justice and in July, the
UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on Israel to
tear it down. As usual, Israel, backed by Washington, defiantly
refused to abide by the ruling or the resolution.
Menargues’
remarks have earned condemnation from the French government as well as
RFI journalists and Jewish groups, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
The
French Foreign Ministry said that Menargues' description of Israel as
racist was “unacceptable” and journalists’ unions at RFI called
on the management to “assume its responsibilities.”
The
vice-president of the France-Israel association Gilles William
Goldnadel also weighed in, saying the remarks were made “in the
context of a deep-rooted anti-Jewishness and the fact they were made
by a director of RFI, the voice of France abroad, shows there is a
sense of total impunity.”
Just
a Country
Menargues,
on the other hand, stood firm, rejecting the charges against him,
saying “Israel is a country like any other and like the others it
must be criticized. There is no exception in my vision of the world,
no country is above international laws.”
Menargues,
57, is a Middle East specialist who has spent many years in the
region. He was named to his current post, which bears the rank of
deputy director-general, in July.
Israel
and Jewish groups have long accused France of pursuing policies that
are biased to the Arab world.
Israel’s
Sharon has sparked a diplomatic row when he called on French Jews to
leave France immediately, and French President Jacques Chirac hitting
back by telling the hard-liner he was unwelcome
in France.
The
so-called anti-Semitism charge has been widely used to silence critics
of Israel worldwide.
On
Saturday, October 16, US President George W. Bush signed into law a
controversial bill on combating global anti-Semitism.
The
law commits the US State Department to documenting acts of
physical violence against Jews, their property, cemeteries and places
of worship abroad, as well as local governments' responses to them and
take note of instances of anti-Jewish propaganda and governments'
readiness to promote unbiased school curricula.
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