STUDY: FRENCH JEWS ARE CANARY IN COAL MINE

Study on impact of last year's riots in France released in Israel
JERUSALEM (EJP)--- A think tank has released a study that draws a link between the riots in France last autumn and the wave of anti-Semitic incidents that preceded them. One of the conclusions reached by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, or JCPA, is that the Jews of France were the proverbial "canary in the mineshaft". They "were the first group to feel in recent years that something in contemporary French society had gone radically wrong," the study said.

The anti-Semitic events which included assaults on Jews in the streets and attacks on synagogues were played down by the governments and the study says that this emboldened those who would carry out the riots in the Autumn of 2005.

The study claims: "It is possible that had the French government protected the Jews more forcefully when they were attacked a few years ago, it would have prevented the 2005 riots."

The study is titled "The Autumn 2005 Riots in France: Their Possible Impact on Israel and the Jews." Another area which the study deals with is the reaction of French Jewry to both the riots and the ongoing increase of anti-Semitism in France. The study also deals with the impact of the riots in France and their relevance to Franco-Israeli relations.