NOVANEWS

By PETER ALLEN

France’s new Socialist president owns three holiday homes in the glamorous Riviera resort of Cannes, it emerged today.

The 57-year-old who ‘dislikes the rich’ and wants to revolutionise his country with high taxes and an onslaught against bankers is in fact hugely wealthy himself. 

His assets were published today in the Official Journal, the gazette which contains verified information about France’s government. 

Mixed messages: Socialist president Francois Hollande portrays himself as an enemy of the rich – and yet he holds assets worth almost £1million

To the undoubted embarrassment to the most left-wing leader in Europe and a man who styles himself as ‘Mr Normal’, they are valued at almost £1million. 

It will also reinforce accusations that Hollande is a ‘Gauche Caviar’, or ‘Left-Wing Caviar’ – the Gallic equivalent of a Champagne Socialist.

Among other assets are three current accounts in French banks – two with global giant Societe Generale and one with the Postal Bank – and a life insurance policy.

But it is the fabulous property portfolio which is causing the greatest stir among millions of ordinary French people who voted for Holland over the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy last Sunday. 

Hollande regularly attacked the ‘Bling-Bling’ presidency of Sarkozy, whose multi-millionaire lifestyle with Italian-born heiress Carla Bruni contributed to his humiliating election defeat after just one term in office.

Bling-Bling and Mr Normal: Hollande’s campaign was helped by public disapproval of the multi-millionaire lifestyle enjoyed by his rival Nicolas Sarkozy (left)

As well as the spacious Paris apartment he shares with his lover Valerie Trierweiler, Hollande owns a palatial villa in Mougins, the prestigious hill-top Cannes suburb where the artist Pablo Picasso used to live.

It is valued by the Official Journal at €800,000 (£642,000), and is just a short drive from Hollande’s two flats in the Cannes. They are each priced at €230,000 (£185,000) and €140,000 (£112,000).

Hollande has promised to cut his pay by 30 per cent after he is officially sworn in as President next week, but he will still be on €156,000 (£125,000) a year, plus fabulous expenses and other perks. 

Shacking up: Hollande shares his large Paris apartment with partner Valerie Trierweiler

He intends to set a top tax rate of 75 per cent, and to increase France’s controversial wealth tax – moves which have already seen wealthy people threatening to leave the country, and move abroad to places like the UK.

Meanwhile, Hollande wants to pour public money into France’s public service, creating thousands of new jobs.

He has has also threatened to block the eurozone’s new financial treaty unless Germany agrees to renegotiate its stringent austerity measures.

Hollande wants the treaty, seen as crucial to ensuring the survival of the single currency, to focus more on encouraging growth.

Benoit Hamon, spokesman for Hollande’s Socialist Party, said that the ‘politics of austerity’ was failing to improve the continent’s financial crisis.

He said the president-elect was determined to win a ‘trial of strength’ over the new fiscal pact, which aims to impose budgetary discipline on the 25 European Union countries who have signed up.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142847/Francois-Hollande-French-president-claims-dislike-rich-3-French-Riviera-homes.html#ixzz1ugogCeaa

NOVANEWS

NOVANEWS

Graves of Muslim soldiers desecrated in France

NOVANEWS

By Gilad Atzmon

Marine Le Pen and The French’s Front National are the big winners in the French elections yesterday. France’s Front National scored the best ever presidential campaign first-round result (18% of the votes).

As elsewhere in Europe, the French far right is dealing with matters other political parties prefer to avoid or shove under the carpet. Yesterday results proves that many French are primarily concerned with issues to do with immigration and ‘identity loss’. While the so called ‘far Right’ engages with these matters, the Left and the Centre parties perform an escapist attitude – they prefer to vet the discussion via different means such as political correctness and even legislation. The media, would also shy away from the subject and would prefer to gate-keep any attempt to deal with the ‘unpopular’ topic.

Le Pen’s victory is clearly an alarm call. As the financial turmoil starts to bite, it becomes clear that we are dealing with a ticking bomb. The way to defuse the situation is to launch a free and open discussion on maters to do with ‘belonging’, ‘identity’ and ‘culture’. The Left has been confused about it all for decades. European Left is riddled with contradiction, it would, for instance, support national movement around the world but never at home. The Left would adorably support Palestinian nationalism in Gaza and the West Bank but it would oppose similar English or French patriotism at home. How do we explain or justify such an unprincipled political attitude?

The Guardian refereed to Le Pen today as a ‘populist appeal’. It obviously missed the point once again. Le Pen is popular because she touches some (unpopular) issues no one else, (including the Guardian) dares to touch. It is in fact the Guardian and other media outlets that present a populist approach maintaining some delusional notions of correctness that appear to be detached from the reality in which we are living in.

Posted By: Siba Bizri

Arabic Shoah Editor in Chief

أفادت تقديرات للنتائج نشرت أن المرشح الاشتراكى فرنسوا هولاند حصل على ما بين 28,4 و29,3% من الأصوات، متقدما على منافسه الرئيس نيكولا ساركوزى الذى حصل على ما بين 25,5 و27%، ليتنافس بذلك الرجلان على السباق إلى قصر الاليزيه فى السادس من مايو.

وقالت رئيسة الحزب الاشتراكى مارتين اوبرى معلقة على هذه النتائج “لقد وجه الفرنسيون صفعة كبيرة” إلى نيكولا ساركوزى.

Posted By: Siba Bizri

Shoah Editor

أثار تواطؤ شركة «إير فرانس» مع السلطات الإسرائيلية لمنع نشطاء السلام من الوصول إلى الأراضي الفلسطينية، ضمن تظاهرة «أهلاً وسهلاً في فلسطين»، جدلاً على الساحة الفرنسية نتيجة خرق الشركة للتشريعات وتصنيفها المسافرين على أسس عرقية ودينية

عثمان تزغارت – صحيفة الأخبار اللبنانية
باريس | لا يزال الجدل متواصلاً بخصوص قضية تواطؤ عدد من شركات الطيران الأوروبية مع سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي لمنع نشطاء سلام غربيين من السفر إلى الأراضي الفلسطينية، ضمن تظاهرة «أهلاً وسهلاً في فلسطين». وأُثيرت ضجة كبيرة، أول من أمس، في فرنسا، بعدما كُشف عن خرق شركة الطيران الحكومية «إير فرانس» للتشريعات الفرنسية التي تحظر ممارسة التفرقة على أساس عرقي أو ديني، وذلك رضوخاً لأوامر إسرائيلية بإخضاع الراغبين في السفر إلى مطار تل أبيب، يوم 15 نيسان الجاري، للإجابة إجبارياً عن سؤالين مكتوبين، قبل بتّ قبولهم أو رفضهم على الرحلات المتوجهة إلى الكيان الغاضب. السؤال الأول مفاده: هل لديك أقارب يحملون الجنسية الإسرائيلية؟ أما الثاني فيقول: هل تدين بالديانة اليهودية؟

وأثار كشف استمارات سفر تحمل هذين السؤالين جدلاً كبيراً في فرنسا، التي تعد البلد الأوروبي الأكثر تشدداً في حظر فرز الناس أو تصنيفهم على أسس عرقية أو دينية. وكانت تشريعات صارمة قد سُنّت في هذا الشأن بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية، إثر عمليات المطاردة التي طاولت اليهود الفرنسيين، وأرغمتهم على حمل «النجمة الصفراء»، تمهيداً لتسليمهم لقوات الاحتلال الألماني، وترحيلهم إلى معسكرات الإبادة النازية. الشيء الذي يجعل اليوم أي إجراء يتعلق بفرز الناس على أساس أصولهم الدينية أو العرقية، حتى لو كان مجرد استطلاع رأي مثلاً يثير حساسية خاصة في فرنسا، لأنه يذكّر بواحدةمن أحلك الصفحات في التاريخ الفرنسي المعاصر.

وفي بيان رسمي أصدرته شركة الطيران الفرنسية، أول من أمس، بُرِّر منع النشطاء الغربيين من السفر إلى إسرائيل بـ«اتفاقية شيكاغو» (1944)، التي تنظم الطيران المدني، والتي تلزم شركات الطيران أن تمنع على رحلاتها أي أشخاص غير مرغوب فيهم في بلد الوصول. وكانت صحيفة «هآرتس» الإسرائيلية قد كشفت أن منع النشطاء الغربيين جاء على أساس «قوائم سوداء» أعدها جهاز «شين بيت»، وسُلِّمت إلى شركات الطيران «إير فرانس» و«لوفتانزا» و»إيزي جات». لكن الإعلامي آلان غريش كشف على مدوّنته أن الأمر لم يقتصر فقط على «القوائم السوداء» التي تضم أسماء نشطاء سلام غير مرغوب فيهم في إسرائيل، وهو أمر اعتادته سلطات الاحتلال، منذ سنين. ونقل غريش عن مدير قطاع الإعلام والدراسات لدى «إير فرانس»، جان شارل تريان، أن السلطات الإسرائيلية طلبت من موظفي شركة الطيران الفرنسية أن يطرحوا سؤالين مكتوبين على العديد من المسافرين الذين لم يكونوا مدرجين على «قوائم شين بيت»، ولكن اشتبه في أنهم قد يكونون من نشطاء السلام، حيث طُلب منهم الإفصاح إن كان لديهم أقارب إسرائيليون وهل يدينون باليهودية، لفرز الموالين للكيان الغاضب عمن يحتمل أن يكونوا من مؤيدي القضية الفلسطينية. وأضاف المسؤول الفرنسي أن الإجابة عن السؤالين المذكورين اعتُمدت أساساً لإصدار حظر من السفر في حالة واحدة على الأقل، تتعلق بمسافرة في مطار نيس، جنوب فرنسا، الشيء الذي يعد خرقاً صارخاً للتشريعات الفرنسية التي تحظر إجراءات التفرقة الدينية أو العرقية

NOVANEWS

French organizers of fly-in claim one female passenger wasn’t allowed to depart from Nice as she was neither an Israeli citizen nor a Jew

Raanan Ben-Zur

activists managed to overcome airport scrutiny and reach Bethlehem. The activists include 51 French citizens, 11 Brits, six Italians, five Canadians, two Spanish citizens and citizens from the US, Portugal and Switzerland.

Some of the activists have already been sent back to their countries of origin and more than 50 were taken to the Givon holding facility for illegal aliens. More than 30 of the detainees are French and the rest are from Canada, Italy, Britain and other countries.

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister fly-in at the Ben Gurion Airport. “The preparation of all elements involved, both operational and diplomatic, had proved itself,” he said. “The world today has a better understanding of where the Middle East’s true problems lie.”

French activist at Ben Gurion Airport (Photo: Reuters)

The detainees are held by the force of an order of the Interior Minister and are expected to stay in custody until their deportation. They will be allowed to meet with consuls from their countries as well as lawyers.

Pro-Palestinian activist in Nice, France (Photo:MCT)

Their admission into the Givon facility included a medical examination and an explanation of their rights and duties in prison. They were each given a toothbrush, soap and a towel and were allowed to enter with their hand-bags. Their luggage remains at the Ben Gurion Airport. The Prison Service said that no unusual incidents had been recorded and that all the detainees behaved well.

Meanwhile, the French organizers of the fly-in condemned Israel and Air France for their “racism” on the website. They claim that one female passenger was not allowed to depart from France simply because she was neither Jewish nor Israeli.

“Only Jews or Israeli citizens were allowed to fly and a young passenger who replied negatively to both questions was grounded,” the message said. The message noted that this had occurred on a flight from Nice and that legal steps will be taken against the airline.

NOVANEWS

NOVANEWS

Pro-Zionist Arab Network Al Jazeera said it would not broadcast video footage shot by Mohammed Merah during his attacks on soldiers and on a Jewish school in Toulouse.

“In accordance with Al Jazeera’s code of ethics, given the video does not add any information that is not already in the public domain, its news channels will not be broadcasting any of its contents,” the network said Tuesday.

Al Jazeera also said it was declining all requests from other media outlets for copies of the footage.

Earlier in the day, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had called on television networks “that might have these images” not to broadcast the footage “out of respect for the victims — out of respect for the Republic.”

The edited footage was sent on a USB flash drive to Al Jazeera in Paris. Al Jazeera sent the drive to police on Monday, Reuters reported.

The package reportedly was mailed to Al Jazeera on March 21, the day that police began their siege of Merah’s Toulouse apartment. Merah was killed following a 30-hour standoff when police stormed his apartment. He was shot in the head while jumping out a window.

A letter accompanying the footage said that Merah had acted on behalf of al-Qaida, The Associated Press reported.

Merah had confessed during the standoff with police that he killed the three soldiers and the four people at the Ozar Hatorah school — a rabbi and his two young sons, and the daughter of the school’s principal.

NOVANEWS

By Daniel Hoffman

PARIS (JTA) — With the first round of France’s presidential election less than four weeks away, the attacks that left four Jews and three French soldiers dead are reshaping the race — but for now it’s not clear exactly how.

In the days leading up to the attacks, President Nicolas Sarkozy had managed to close most of the gap behind the leader in the polls, Socialist candidate Francoise Hollande, with a rightward turn that included calls by Sarkozy in favor of tougher immigration restrictions and against the labeling of halal meat.

Since the March 19 attack on the Jewish Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, Sarkozy has announced several measures to clamp down on right-wing and Islamic extremists. He ordered French security forces to seek out Muslim extremists, barred an influential Egyptian Sunni cleric from attending a conference in France next month and urged TV networks not to air footage of the Toulouse attack and the one on soldiers in nearby Montauban that had been delivered to the Al Jazeera bureau here.

While politicians across the political spectrum condemned the attacks, Sarkozy won praise from the Jewish community for suspending his campaign and flying to Toulouse immediately after the school shooting, calling it “obviously anti-Semitic” and saying that the “whole republic” was mobilized to face the tragedy.

But it’s not clear how long the focus will remain on security before shifting back to the main issue facing France: the economy.

“The political debate will probably refocus on the fundamental economic topics,” said Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist who specializes in right-wing extremism. “Still, it is very important to French Jews to make the population understand that the Toulouse attack does not only concern their community but the whole country.”

French Jews, he said, “will most certainly vote for politicians with solid experience who are able to put in practice legal and credible measures to answer an Islamic threat.”

The latest national polls show Sarkozy and his center-right Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, trailing Hollande by a percentage point or two in the first round scheduled for April 22, but by a wider gap in a theoretical runoff scheduled for May 6.

Since the Toulouse attack, the National Front, France’s largest far-right party, has tried to take advantage of the changed climate. On Sunday, party leader Marine Le Pen promised to “bring radical Islam to its knees.” In her speech Le Pen, who has been polling at approximately 15 percent, also linked mass immigration with fundamentalism and denounced the risk of a “green fascism.”

Few observers believe that many Jews will opt for the National Front, even though Le Pen has sought to woo Jewish voters and distance herself and her party from the anti-Semitism of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front.

“In 2002, only 6 percent of French Jews voted for the National Front, while the election occurred only a few months after 9/11,” Camus said. “A substantial movement from the Jewish community toward Marine Le Pen is very unlikely.”

The Jewish community, whose 600,000 members represent less than 1 percent of the total French population, remains more supportive of Sarkozy’s party than the general public. But prior to the Toulouse shootings, a survey of the Jewish electorate showed that Sarkozy had lost support among Jews even though he remained more popular than any other single candidate.

According to a March 9 poll from the French polling institute IFOP, Sarkozy’s favorable ratings among Jews had fallen to 43 percent as of January from 62 percent in May 2007, when Sarkozy was elected president. The main reason, said Jerome Fourquet, who directed the survey for IFOP, was France’s economy.

“The trend is similar to the French general electorate’s disaffection with Sarkozy,” Fourquet said. “People are dissatisfied with the economic situation and their purchasing power.”

For many Jews, the economy is not the only source of discontent with the president. In early March, Sarkozy’s prime minister, Francois Fillon, made controversial statements about halal and kosher slaughter rituals, declaring that the “ancestral traditions” in Islam and Judaism were “outdated.”

The comment provoked a strong reaction from Jewish leaders.

“As religion and state are strictly separated in France, politicians should avoid giving their opinion on these topics,” said Richard Prasquier, president of the CRIF, the main French umbrella organization for Jewish institutions.

More widely, French moderates also have expressed concern about Sarkozy’s tilt to the right. A week before the Toulouse shootings, Sarkozy told an audience that France has “too many foreigners” and proposed cutting legal immigration in half.

Thirty years ago, most Jews leaned toward the Socialist Party. Francois Mitterrand, a Socialist who served as president of France from 1981 to 1995, was considered a friend of Israel — an image he developed after his 1982 address to the Knesset, where he emphasized the Jewish state’s right to security.

But the Jewish vote drifted toward the UMP during the second intifada, when many leftist organizations took a pro-Palestinian stance and violence against French Jews soared.

“Violence in the Middle East had a huge impact on this community,” Fourquet said. “During the wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France in the early 2000s, many Jews felt abandoned by the Socialists. This is when the center of gravity started shifting to the right for French Jews.”

Sarkozy was interior minister at the time — serving two stints from 2002 to 2007 — and his tough rhetoric and the aggressive measures he championed were credited with helping tamp down the anti-Semitic violence.