This is a France that has lost its moral compass, and will not last much longer as a free society.
“French Jews protest play about Toulouse killer,” JTA, July 12, 2017 (thanks to the Geller Report):
Leaders of France’s Jewish community and relatives of the murderer of four Jews in Toulouse protested the staging of a play on his life at the prestigious Avignon theater festival.
The play, titled “I Love Death as You Love Life,” which premiered last week at the Festival of Avignon in southern France, is about the last three hours in the life of Mohammed Merah, the Islamist who in 2012 murdered three French soldiers before also executing three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse, Myriam Monsonégo, and brothers Arié and Gabriel Sandler, along with the boys’ father, Yonathan Sandler.
Ariel Goldmann, a vice president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities and spokesperson for the SPCJ communal security unit, called the play “a disgrace and an ignominy” in a statement Wednesday that he co-authored with three other notable members of his community.
The play is an “enterprise of justification being falsely presented under the alibi of artistic expression,” added Goldman in his letter, which was cosigned by Patrick Klugman, Elie Korchia and Jacques Gauthier-Gaujoux.
But the Algerian playwright Mohamed Kacimi, who authored the play, defended it as “anything but a justification or rehabilitation of Merah” but rather as “an interrogation about a monster created by society.”
The play, featuring two actors separated by a thin wall, is based on transcriptions of talks between Merah and counterterrorism agents who besieged Merah’s hiding place two days after the attack on the school. Merah, 23, was killed in a shootout with police when they broke in, following the breakdown of negotiations aimed at getting Merah to come out peacefully.
In one scene, the actor portraying Merah tells the other actor that he had ordered a slice of four-cheese pizza after killing the children.
Some of the objections to the play, including by the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, were over what critics said was the “banalization” of Merah’s actions, and one of several perceived attempts to attribute them to his personal circumstances rather than ideology and portray him as vulnerable.
Robert says
The play is an attempt to normalize evil and to make even horrendous violence banal. Almost every modern army does it.
Why does Western society, which has so much Jewish blood on its hands, continue to fail Jews? Didn’t we learn from the Holocaust? Or was our repugnance and moral outrage simply virtue signalling?
I’m afraid that the Jews in our society will be driven out by Muslim immigrants, who refuse to assimilate to our moral views.
Bill says
I think that is the plan. France was less welcoming of its historical German invaders which had the same objectives as it related to Jews. For some reason, France is surrendering more than its borders to this new invader. They are surrendering everything: religion, art, cusine,
Rusty says
France was incredibly complicit with the Holocaust, much more so than other countries. For example, Denmark especially, the Netherlands, and Poland (though a mixed bag)had far more (non-Jewish) people who would risk (and often lose) their lives to save Jews. The French “resistance” is mostly a myth created by De Gualle and allowed by other Francophiles in order to lessen his nation’s disgrace. I suspect France’s Islomophilia is partially due to a common opinion on “the Jewish question”.
gravenimage says
Denmark was able to save almost her entire Jewish population, spiriting them to safety with a flotilla of fishing boats out to Sweden in a single night. A remarkable and sadly little-known part of WWII.
carpediadem says
Because Western society always seems to want to align with Islamic countries. All that oil.
gravenimage says
Mohammed Merah was not an oil-rich Muslim country–just a murderous Jihadist thug.
dsinc says
An aircraft full of French Jews landed in Israel just a few days ago..
old white guy says
have the people of france ever had a moral compass? I know the people of Canada no longer have one and America is following in the same ruts. the level of change needed to turn us aside from moral depravity will only be possible when we reach the level of disaster revealed in Revelation.
Marty says
Canada under the Truedope Liberals put on a fine display of Muslim appeasement last week with the $10.5 million gift to a known (convicted) Muslim terrorist.
Carolyne says
Someone always tries to make religion relevant to oppose Islam. Its just a myth folks. Is that a revelation?
Lucia Bartoli says
Now all cultural French persons will probably know the suffering of the Jews in WWII. There are none so blind as those who will not see! French Jews who cannot fight (age, health, etc) should go to Israel until France wakes up. The French did little in WWII and this looks like a re-run
mortimer says
Let’s hope the controversy this play has stirred up will awaken French people to the monster of political Islam living amongst them.
Bill says
It would not appear to be developing that way. Read the latest outrage. The government is controlling speech at levels only witnessed in the most extreme of dictatorships. The elites will have Islam and at this point nothing short of an insurrection by the people will prevent it.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/07/13/france-ban-magazine-publishing/
gravenimage says
Disturbing.
John Forbes says
Unfortunately this is a throw back to the WW2 French Roman Catholic attitudes to the Jews & the end result for many thousands in France was death !
ANTI JEWISH SENTIMENT has for many Centuries been a feature of FRANCE & other Catholic Countries in Europe !
Roman Catholicism on the Christian side was the most dangerous religion on the Planet in the 1930;s !
They were the allies of the Spanish fascists & France with his Muslim Mercenary army of Africa as the Spanish Republicans & Internationals were defeated with Hitlers help in Spain & later allies with Benito Mussolini & his Black Shirts in Italy & Finally of the Fascists of Germany where many from France joined Hitler in the Invasion of Russia (very unwisely )!
Collaborators in France paid a heavy price after the war with more filled by Partisans that were killed by the FASCISTS in LIBERATED VICHY FRANCE !
ISLAM also ( Grand Mufti ) allied with Hitler against the Stalin in later parts of the Invasion of Russia !
There seems to be, still, a large ANTI JEWISH element in France & the followers of ISLAM being now quite a % ( reputed to be now heading towards 12%) of Muslims are certainly ANTI JEWISH !
Very WORRYING THING in our times with JEWS being regularly attacked in France , Jewish Graves Head stoned damaged & many destroyed & Jewish Children targeted & Jews Brutally murdered in quite a few French Cities !
Hitichens referred to Roman Catholicism of the 1930;s as the most dangerous Religion on the Planet & it also needs to be remembered that CATHOLIC PRIESTS helped many NAZI,s escape after the WAR to Argentina ,Brazil & Chile & Peru & they were a big part of the reason so many escaped !
Church attendence has FALLEN dramatically in France as well as the rest of Europe but ANTI JEWISH feelings seem to have been replaced by MUSLIM ANTI JEWISH feelings ???????
gravenimage says
Actually, the Pope saved many Jews during the Holocaust.
Your idea that the problem is Catholicism is mistaken.
Curmudgeon says
It is not true that France did “little” regarding the Holocaust there. France did quite a lot, actually.
The French police and military went above and beyond the call of duty in arresting transporting their Jews, often enthusiastically, to the death camps. Even the Germans were impressed by France’s participation and cooperation. Yes, there were a few pockets of resistance, but France was a model of efficient genocide. Blaming Catholicism is mostly a slur, as equally Catholic Italy, ruled by Fascists, often impeded arrests and deportations (often using the excuse of bureaucratic incompetence), sometimes with the collusion of high ranking Fascist officials in thwarting the Holocaust. Not always, not everywhere, but Italian-controlled territories were, until the puppet Salo regime, havens for fleeing Jews who were advised to avoid France. It is an insult to say that France did “little,” when, in fact, they did so much! One, perhaps not entirely true story, has it that SCNF (France’s railroad) protested the Jewish deportations to the Germans. You see, Germany billed SCNF for third class seats, whereas, in fact, the Jews travelled by French cattle car. The French protested….. that they had been over-charged by the Germans.
That France celebrates anti-semitic murderers, tried to kill the showing of a film about Islamic anti-semitism in Western Europe THIS MONTH, failed to publicize the brutal slaying earlier this year of a 66 year old Jewish woman in Paris by her Muslim neighbor so as not to disturb community cohesion, all of this and vastly more tells you all you need to know about the enduring anti-semitism of the Republic.
This latest outrage should evince anger but not surprise. And, of course, the greater the immigrant population from places where genocidal Jew-hatred is the norm, the more French politicians will wink and nod, much as the Jeremy Corbyn’s Labor party is doing in the UK. One shouldn’t expect any better from a Republic that still celebrates the revolutionary terror of its birth.
mortimer says
Algerian playwright Mohamed Kacimi claimed his play is “an interrogation about a monster created by society.”
However, is that the right question? Did ‘society’ create the jihadist Merah? Which society?
Why are other French boys not becoming jihadists?
The correct question is ‘Why do Muslim boys from ALL socio-economic levels become jihadists? Why are most of the jihadists predominantly boys from comfortable, happy, affluent, stable homes and who have good future prospects for employment in well-paying jobs? Why are Muslim boys with a good education more likely to become jihadists?
vyx says
Why are Muslim boys becoming jihadists?
Maybe the answer is that they’re tempted by the fame, the money which will flow to their family from the Middle East after they are gone and the so-called virgins in heaven.
Or perhaps they’ve just been lured by Evil.
Carolyne says
Most likely it is because they are a lower form of life.
gravenimage says
Muslim boys are taught from the earliest age that becoming Jihadists and dying while murdering Infidels is the highest attainment of any Muslim.
gravenimage says
Exactly, Mortimer. The “society” in question is just the Muslim one.
J.P. Lynch says
Robert- your comment is right on – “the play is an attempt to normalize evil” . Even though these are actual events, how can the victims and their families re-live their horror every time this play goes on.
I had the honor of visiting Aushwitz years ago and it was an experience that stays with you forever.
This play is an insult on too many levels to comprehend. I pray these victims and their families find
some solace in the prayers directed toward them by caring people around the world!
Andy says
What a shame that in this day and age we still have this mentality of hate among certain people.
God Bless Israel and The Jewish People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z9naioOvD4
Long live Israel!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV0RQYvUNjI
The survival of Judeo-Christian civilization depends on us to stand up this EVIL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV0RQYvUNjI
underbed cat says
This video is right to the point….no one can imagine living surrounded by enemies…..it is a hatred fueled by a doctrine of hate, for both Jews and Christians and all non believers of Islam. Israel must survive. America should aid and assist at all costs. The people who scream death to Israel death to America have not right to cross your borders.
gravenimage says
Pat Condell Rocks!
Irene Brekelmans says
I have to applaud President Macron, he does his job so wel, ach what is it, 3 Jewish children killed and the rest. But he had a nice slice of pizza after killing the children WITH 4 CHEEZES). Very tasty it must have been after killing 3 children, but the murderer must have really felt at peace with Allah afterwards.
And all that you believe Mr. Macron and sold out France and the people (islamophobics}, who warned you and other governments. I hope for you that you don’t have children, because they have to fight our battles of freedom and freedom of speech and to dress how they want to etc. in the beginning of their adult lives And Mr Hollande must have been very glad that he lost against you, but you wanted the job so badly, but now what? You forgot to protect your own people, the French people, remember, the originals who have to live now under Sharia !!! I hope you sleep at night (may be in Versaille ),.I, myself could write a beautiful play, but most would not find it so beautiful, too sarcastic I think, but artistic !!!
Bonne nuit !Mr. President. J’ai pleuree pour la derniere fois today for France.
gravenimage says
For what it’s worth, Macron was not PM during this Jihad terror attack.
Barry says
I think…I KNOW…that a manifestation of a great civilization/ culture is its’ contribution to art and science…..there is an unquestionably/ undebated, exhaustive list of ‘Christian’/ God-believing scientists and artists throughout history….I could start a list with Galileo and Rembrandt/ Michelangelo, but would be totally remiss in that listing…so I shall not embarrass myself or the miscues I’d make…I would also add that reference to the once proud and distinguished ‘Noble’ society….but since Sweden is spinning down the flushed toilet of a once-great society, I will keep the ‘Nobel’ to a minimum…So let’s talk about art, since this post is about art….playwright….I love literature (my chosen art-form love, though I love paintings and everything else)….so I ask myself, where/ what encompasses the breath and depth of the contribution to art and science from islam????? what great playwright/ novelist/ painter/ sculpture originates from mohammadens???? ….answer….NO ONE, or at the very most, hardly anyone…
Omar, Caliph way back when, told his underlings to burn ALL the books at the library of Alexandria….somewhat of a quote/ idea from his sick, muslim mind…”Burn it all…if it’s not in the quran, burn it; if it’s in the quran, burn it, (since it’s already in the quran)….”
The hallmark of great civilizations/ cultures is it’s contribution to science and art…..I don’t know of diddly-squat what islam has contributed to either science or art….except this playwright espousing the glorification of the brutal murder of little children…..hey mr. playwright….eat a bag of shit…..
ItsReallyQuiteClear says
Jews are fleeing France in record numbers. For the past 5 years or so, every year marks a new record in the number of Jews fleeing from France, primarily to emigrate to Israel, and based upon interviews, and on the timing with regard to Muslim attacks, much of this increase is due to their concerns for their safety.
“Nearly 8,000 French Jews moved to Israel in the year following the Charlie Hebdo attack, according to the Jewish Agency, which handles Jewish immigration, or aliyah, to Israel.
The number of French Jews moving to Israel has doubled — and doubled again — in the past five years.
In 2013, less than 3,300 French Jews moved to Israel. Only two years earlier, that number stood at 1,900.”
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/22/middleeast/france-israel-jews-immigration/index.html
—————————————————————————————————————————-
With regard to the victims of the 2015 kosher Hyper Cacher supermarket murders, there was concern that their bodies would not be safe, even in death:
“So acute is the sense of insecurity among Jews that Serge Cwajgenbaum, secretary general of the European Jewish Congress, said the four supermarket victims were to be buried in Jerusalem on Tuesday, partly because of fears that their graves would be desecrated in France.”
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/world/europe/fear-on-rise-jews-in-france-weigh-an-exit.html
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said, after the kosher market murders, “France without Jews is not France.” (Google shows many sources). Talk is cheap, and Valls must have known, even two years ago, that France lacked the will to protect French Jews.
I hope that France can salvage its beautiful country and its beautiful culture. Their actions don’t make for attractive odds…
billybob says
How can we critique a play we haven’t seen?
gravenimage says
France: Muslim playwright glorifies the murderer of three French Jewish children in play
…………………
Sickening–lauding the premeditated *murder of children*.
I’m glad that French Jews are protesting this; every decent French citizen should do the same.
ploome says
exactly
Curmudgeon says
Don’t hold your breath about “every decent French citizen” protesting. Progressives will laud the author’s revolutionary spirit and celebrate his anti-semitism. And the rest? Neutered.
Lydia says
That playwright is sick and evil.
gravenimage says
That playwright is Muslim–’nuff said.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Beaumarchais should have been a victim of the terror but wasn’t. Maybe this piece of self-serving excrement will have a worse fate. We can only hope.
ploome says
and here is the other obscenity-
“Leaders of France’s Jewish community and relatives of the murderer of four Jews in Toulouse protested the staging of a play on his life at the prestigious Avignon theater festival.”
WHY ARE ONLY THE JEWISH COMMUNITY PROTESTING?
this is a French problem…..why does this read like the Jews are standing alone in protest?
ItsReallyQuiteClear says
ploome,
Has there ever been a groundswell, demonstrative show of solidarity for Jews, from across demographics? Like what we see now, almost everywhere, in support of Muslims?
I believe that the January, 1939 U.S. Gallup Poll that showed 61% of survey respondents did not want the U.S. to take in 10,000 refugee children, mostly Jewish, from Germany, represented a higher percentage than those who opposed accepting more Syrian immigrants. And this was shortly after Kristallnacht.
Yet today, there is outrage over the idea of a temporary halt on immigration from some predominantly Muslim countries, and it is blindly accepted that such a temporary ban would be (well now, “is”) a violation of national values. They should tell that to the Mexican Americans who were deported in the 1930s, to the Japanese Americans who were locked up in internment camps during World War II, or to the close to 1,000 Jews on the MS St. Louis, bound from Germany, which was denied entry to the U.S. (and to Canada) in 1939.
But for far too many ignorant people, in far too many places, Muslim advocacy has become a veritable misguided “merit badge” of tolerance, hipness, and aspirations for faux worldliness.
I hate to say it but I think that the reason this reads like the Jews are standing alone in protest is because they are. Lots of people are too busy channeling their inner Chamberlains, and trying to cozy up to the Muslims.
Source for Gallup Poll reference:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/17/what-americans-thought-of-jewish-refugees-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii/?utm_term=.799c341e8945
ItsReallyQuiteClear says
Oops, my reference to the polls on openness to accepting Syrian refugees were, obviously, recent, and not in 1939. Looks my writing IsReallyNotClear…
Here’s a Gallup reference that summarizes some of these polls. Looks like some of the percentages were fairly comparable, so where was the comparable outrage?
http://www.gallup.com/poll/186866/americans-again-opposed-taking-refugees.aspx
Westman says
:..a monster created by society.” Quite so, by Islamic society and its writings, preachings of hate, violence, and bigotry against Jews and kafirs.
Matthieu Baudin says
“… But the Algerian playwright Mohamed Kacimi, who authored the play, defended it as “anything but a justification or rehabilitation of Merah” but rather as ‘an interrogation about a monster created by society.’…”
I’m sick and tired of this unending rubbish. Kacimi is embarking on a tired, dishonest and murderous endeavour by shifting moral responsibility to ‘society’ for the mass murder instigated by Merah. Kacimi will never be sued by ‘society’ for defamation; convenient isn’t it. I’d like to watch a play that explores the motivations of that creep Kacimi and his ilk and then watch in fascination as he plays the ‘victim card’ for all it’s worth.
Guy Jones says
“A monster created by ‘society?'”
More accurate to say, “A monster created by the Koran.”
Richie says
One must remember Islam is a pagan death cult, they worship a dark moon god
To them, murder is a holy sacrament
Richie says
Muslim children are encouraged to torture and murder animals- this is preparing them for the day when they can kill humans with no remorse
People must see Islam as being guided by the hand of Satan itself
Jack Dawkins says
How about a production of RHINOCEROS by French theatre-of-the absurd playwright IONESCO?
Tom says
The left will try any means to appease the killing by Islamists and to promote killing of those who disagree with their world views and agenda.
Using our schools and universities to brainwash our children and young people, then movies and hollywood to continue the brainwashing, and now the “Arts” to get their message of hate across age and social barriers.
It is going to take a great effort to counter the lies and hatred of the left.
Jean Terry says
As a Christian I believe it is all biblical, but at the same time it makes no sense to me. Anti-Semitism that is. The Jewish people have contributed and continue to contribute to the world. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. After WWII you would have thought anti-Semitism was at an end. But the Bible says that those who go against Israel will perish, as they will in the end. Hopefully, they will accept our Lord and see the light themselves. God bless and protect Israel and the Jewish people.
Carolyne says
In order to enter heaven must the Jewish people “Accept our Lord and see the light,” or are they exempt from this restriction? I support Israel and I support the Jewish people but why do they get a pass to heaven? That is so ridiculous.
Mike says
And , of course , as usual , society is responsible for Mohamed Merah ‘s choices. It will ne difficulkt to sue society , though .
ItsReallyQuiteClear says
With apologies for veering a bit off topic, anyone who is interested in the experience of Jews in France during the Nazi occupation might consider reading The Journal of Hélène Berr.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hélène_Berr
To get back on topic, a generalizable lesson that can be gleaned from Ms. Berr’s story is that, when murderous hatred comes knocking on your door, there is no amount of open-mindedness, good-heartedness, naivety or education that is likely to protect you. But that’s what Western governments are telling their citizens is their best form of defense against terrorism[sic] (feel like I had to throw a [sic] in there).