French-Muslim News Website Compiles ‘Hit List’ Of Famous Jews
Manuel Valls Image by Getty images
(JTA) — A French-Muslim news outlet and a prominent anti-colonialism activist published on Twitter alleged hit lists featuring Jewish groups and individuals.
Sihame Assbague, the activist, posted the first list of eight items last week.
It included the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities; the Socialist Jewish politician Julien Dray; former prime minister Manuel Valls — a supporter of Israel whose ex-wife and children are Jews; and the radical left-wing politician Jean-Luc Melenchon, who is not Jewish.
The list was accompanied by a picture of a character from the series “Game of Thrones,” from a scene in which she lists the people she intends to kill.
The tweet by Assbague — whom the LICRA civil rights watchdog has accused frequently of spreading racist views on whites and Jews – prompted a reply from the official Twitter account of Al Kanz, which is one of France’s best read Muslim news websites.
The Al Kanz staffer who wrote the reply added nine more names, including the Jewish philosophers Raphael Enthoven and Alain Finkielkraut; the French-Jewish historian Eric Zemmour; the French-Jewish journalist Elisabeth Levy; and several other writers with critical views on Islam and radical Islam.
Enthoven wrote on Twitter that the lists were “hate speech” and expressed his “solidarity with the other targets.”
On the Al Kanz Twitter account, a spokesperson denied amid an uproar over the lists that they were sinister in any way and dismissed them as an attempt at humor. A later message said that Enthoven’s condemnation exposed the paper to harassment online by Jews.
As the controversy unfolded, the Al Kanz staffer again replied to Assbague’s original list after, writing: “May they and we live to be older than 100 in excellent health.”
Contact Alyssa Fisher at [email protected] or on Twitter, @alyssalfisher
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
