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Record 450
French immigrants to arrive at Ben Gurion Airport
A record 450 French
olim were to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport Wednesday, on three
special flights sponsored by the Jewish Agency and the AMI immigration
association.
The immigrants were to be welcomed in an official ceremony,
where they were to be addressed by Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski,
Immigration and Absorptiion Minister Eli Aflalo and AMI founder Pierre
Besnainou.
France has one of the largest Jewish communities outside of
Israel, totaling nearly half a million people. Its population is second only to
America's Jewish population, which has now exceeded 5 million.
Since 2000, there has been a marked increase in the number
of French citizens immigrating to Israel, arguably due to the waves of growing
anti-Semitism in the European state.
Many French Jews say that they no longer feel comfortable or
welcome in France, particularly within the working-class suburbs of Paris,
where much of the tension has been focused.
Last month, a Jewish teenager was brutally attacked in the
19th Arrondissement of Paris.
That neighborhood, which has been the site of ongoing
scuffles between North African Jews and Muslims living in Paris, was the same
suburb in which 23-year-old Ilan Halimi was beaten and left to die a year
before.
During his visit to Israel last month, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy vowed that France would always defend Israel in the face of any
existential threat - a direct reference to Iran and its nuclear program, which
he called unacceptable.
A nuclear Iran is intolerable," Sarkozy said.
"Anyone trying to destroy Israel will find France blocking the way."
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