In recent years the French media haven’t been very fair to Israel, to put it mildly, yet I must say that their treatment of the Jewish State has been slightly better lately, with unexpected consequences.
Thus in March, Paris hosted its annual Book Fair. Because of its 60th anniversary, Israel was the guest country. Predictably enough, some people encouraged other countries to boycott the Fair. Fortunately not many countries did and quite a few authors and journalists remarked how stupid this would be; the Fair was about literature not politics. Surprisingly enough, a handful of Arab writers even voiced their opinions against the boycott in the traditional media as well as on line.
Numerous Israeli books were translated in French, a lot of magazines and newspapers wrote about Israeli literature and many bookshps devoted whole tables to Istraeli works. As a result a record number of Israeli novels were sold then.
At the time Shimon Peres came to France for a three day visit and went to the Fair. We were in Paris with our students and the Swedish exchange when this happened, hence the photo on the left. It was quite moving to see the Israeli flags on the Champs Elysées.
Because of the anniversary, a lot of tv and radio programs deal with Israel at the moment. Libération, a left-wing paper, devoted a whole edition to Israel with all sorts of articles about its history, inhabitants, culture, etc. I found it to be ecclectic but not too biased. Let’s hope this continues.
Obviously numerous synagogues and Jewish groups commemorate the event. One of my favoutite shuls hosted an evening on Israeli films, there are lectures online on Jewish sites and the Jewish scouts also celebrate this anniversary.
5 Comments
May 8, 2008 at 12:26 pm
You should definitely submit this to Havel Haveilim. Others should know that there is support for Israel in France. We hear all the negatives in the news.
May 8, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Ilana, rdv at the Trocadero the 25th to celebrate!!
Le Parisien chose to put an Israeli Arab on their first page telling us how she suffered from living in a country that wasn’t really hers, that she had no Jewish friends etc. The other articles in side the paper where quite soft and interesting. I feel like you, things are getting better…
May 8, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Leora: I had not thought of Havel Haveilim; I’ve never posted there. How can I get in touch with the people in charge?
SC: Pity I won’t be in Paris that sunday; I have already planned to visit some friends the following Shabbat.
May 8, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Wow, that must have been really special, to see those flags on Champs Elysées… I will e-mail you about your conversion post. Thanks for sharing it!
May 11, 2008 at 11:42 am
Interesting post! I’m so used to Israel being villified in France- nice to hear we’re getting a bit of good press for a change.
My husband and I visited Paris about 10 years ago. It was hard to find anyone who spoke English, and oddly enough, we had better luck in the parts of town with kosher restaurants, where plenty of people spoke….Hebrew!