French update

So it turns out that the woman in France who claimed she was assaulted by six Arab and North African men because they thought she was Jewish made it all up.

PARIS - A young mother who claimed to have been the victim of a vicious anti-Semitic attack that shocked France has admitted it never happened, authorities said,

the Toronto Star tells us.

When I mentioned this a week ago, I noted that there were questions about her story but I wondered if that really made any difference, because the fact the story was accepted so readily showed how much people were aware of how much anti-Jewish hatred there is in France. The question stands.

And another question emerges alongside it: Was the story easier to believe because the alleged attackers were Arabs and blacks? Some think so.

[A]nti-racism group Mrap criticized officials for being too quick to blame youths of Arab and African origin.

Mrap "strongly condemns the irresponsible comments of people who took advantage of this invention to once more use anti-Semitism as a tool against a specific group of people," it said in a statement.

And it appears that those who think so have good reason.

More racist and anti-Semitic acts occurred in France in the first half of 2004 than in all of 2003, official figures show.

A total of 135 anti-Jewish attacks were recorded in the first six months of this year compared to 127 in 2003, while there were 95 attacks on people of North African Arab or black African origin against 51 last year.

That is, there were 6% more anti-Jewish attacks in the first half of 2004 than in all of 2003. For Africans, the increase was 86% in the same comparison.

Racism, as the saying goes, is an equal opportunity destroyer.