Against the backdrop of continuing hate crimes against French Jewry, France's Broadcasting Authority had banned Hezbollah's Al-Manar viciously antisemitic and anti-Israel TV (see right and below) for violating French anti-incitement laws. Earlier this week, French Broadcasting Authority announced that it had reversed its ban thereby giving Al-Manar the license to continue broadcasting into France and elsewhere in Europe via French satellite television after the Beirut-based mouthpiece of the terrorist Hizbollah organization allegedly agreed not to broadcast any hate programming. The Wiesenthal Center has protested to French Broadcasting Authority President Dominique Baudis (click here to read) and we urge you now to join us in demanding French President Jacques Chirac's personal intervention to reinstate the ban. Last year, in meetings with Center officials at the Elysee Palace, (pictured left), President Chirac pledged that he would not "accept or stand by in the face of racism and antisemitism," and that he is "determined and resolute in this fight." But enabling Al-Manar to continue to spew forth its pro-terrorist agenda will certainly fan the flames of antisemitism across Western Europe, encourage further violence against Jewish communities in France, jeopardize European Moslem families who fear indoctrination of their children into an Islamist 'culture of death', as well as make a mockery of the French government's support for the Middle East peace process. For its part, Al-Manar, accuses the "Zionist entity" of unsuccessfully attempting to silence "the voice of Lebanese resistance" and provoke the French and other Europeans against Al-Manar." The Center had first alerted French authorities to the insidious impact of Al-Manar Television on Moslem youth in France in February 2003. The spike in Moslem attacks on Jews in France last year paralleled Al-Manar's transmission of the horrific Syrian miniseries "Al-Shatat" ("The Diaspora"), based upon The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that depicts rabbis ritually slaughtering children to mix their blood into matzah for Passover! The Center's initial protest galvanized broad public support leading the Broadcasting Authority to ban these broadcasts, which were in clear violation of French laws against spreading antisemitism.
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