Paris court sentences young militant Jews
Paris court sentences young militant Jews
- FROM Michel Zlotowski PARIS, 6 March 1998
A Paris court imposed six-month jail terms and fines of £2,600 on two members of a militant Jewish youth group for injuring 11 people in an attack on Nazi sympathisers. David Hadjadi, 28, and Alain Lisbona, 25, were among some 30 members of the right-wing Betar group who took part in clashes involving baseball bats and tear-gas, when attending a 1991 meeting to commemorate writer Marc Augier — who during the war was the editor of the French Waffen SS newspaper.
Several participants were seriously hurt, including an elderly woman who was paralysed.
Mr Hadjadi and Mr Lisbona told the French Jewish weekly, Actualité Juive, that they had aimed ‘to provoke a public disturbance, so that the French authorities would outlaw such meetings. ‘We failed, since we appeared in court, on the wrong side of the fence,’ said Mr Lisbona. The two appealed in the article for donations to help pay their fines. Betar is connected to the Likud party.
Jacques Kupfer, president of Likud-France, told the JC the court’s sentencing of Mr Hadjadi and Mr Lisbona had been ‘outrageous.’ ‘The guilt of the two youths wasn’t proven in court,’ he maintained.
Commenting on the issues raised by the trial, Mr Kupfer declared that it was impossible to reason with anti-Semites. ‘There is only one language they clearly understand: a smack in the gob. It’s the universal language that should be used with them.’ Several months ago, three men entered the offices of a Palestinian charity and attacked its manager.
When asked about this incident, Mr Kupfer declined to comment on allegations that the three may have had links to Betar. Generally, however, he said he was ‘not going to shed tears’ over an attack on a group which he alleged had links to the Hamas organisation. ‘It’s scandalous that such an office is officially allowed to open in France.’
Mr Kupfer went on to say, ‘The physical training of our organisation is not meant for attack, but for defence.’ ‘Let’s be clear,’ he said. ‘Violence is not above the law, none of our militants is, or thinks he is, above the law. It is not a pleasure to apply violence. However, we know from the lessons of history that young Jews must be prepared to fight and to undergo proper training.’
Betar has used its militant tactics within the Jewish community. It has prevented several Israeli peace campaigners, including former cabinet minister Yossi Beilin and parliamentarian Yossi Dayan, from addressing public rallies in France.
In December, the Paris Court of Justice found Likud-France guilty of defamation for writing in its magazine that the enemies of Israel, Radio Shalom should not “stay on the Jewish frequency” because it had criticised the decisions of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
“If a Jewish radio station broadcasts the same criticism as a non-Jewish station, then it is working in the service of the enemies of Israel,” said the author of the article, Alexandre Moïse. When asked about the article, Mr Kupfer could teach youth the values of democracy when they were being schooled in violence. Mr Kupfer said: “The two go together very well. Jabotinsky taught us that no matter how many people tell us that militancy is ugly, it just depends on when it is applied.”