Lawyer Charles Baccouche is a North African Jew in the forefront of the fight against French antisemitism. He does not hold out much hope for the future of the community and plans eventually to move to Israel. Interview in The Times of Israel (With thanks: Lily)
Founded by retired Paris-area police commissioner Sammy Ghozlan,
the BNVCA has worked for more than 15 years to combat French
anti-Semitism and boycotts against Israel. These include the physical
acts of aggression against rabbis, children, synagogues and Jewish
schools which began escalating in 2000.
In 2014, for instance, the Jewish community
reported 851 anti-Semitic incidents, of which 241 were violent attacks,
up from 423 and 105, respectively. Although Ghozlan has retired to
Netanya, he frequently returns and is in constant touch with his team,
including his right hand man, Baccouche.
It is Baccouche who represents the BNVCA on
behalf of French Jewry in legal proceedings. His adversaries are not
only the terrorists set on taking Jewish lives but also France’s most
notorious and most vocal anti-Semites. These include Dieudonne, Alain
Soral, Jean Marie Le Pen and Zeon aka Fernandez, whom he pursues in
court four or five times a year.
“Court is very slow and they delay it
repeatedly,” he says. “The most important thing is to submit complaints
to the French government.”
Over the past three years, in fact, he has
submitted an estimated 400 complaints about anti-Semitic acts, a process
he has continued since 2009 — “each time there is an anti-Semitic act,”
says Baccouche, who resides near the Eiffel Tower.
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