Today in France, not a month goes by without a report of an antisemitic incident, often attributed to descendants of the North African community rather than the extreme right. Not only have Jewish organizations in France expressed concern. The political leadership of Israel has also sounded the alarm. The relationship between Muslims and Jews is often viewed through the lens of the very recent past. Yet to understand the complexity of the current situation, it is important to focus on the post-World War II period, especially in light of Vichy, French decolonization and the creation of the State of Israel. Maud S. Mandel's Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict does just that. It is a very important contribution to work on a very “loaded” subject.
In this detailed and well-argued book, Mandel traces the ways in which a narrative of polarization emerged between French Muslims and Jews between 1948 and the 1980s. Mandel argues that this binary emerged despite the fact that the reality on the ground was much more complex. Global, national and local conditions shaped French Muslim-Jewish relations and Mandel traces the ups and downs over this period. A conflictual relationship, she argues, was not a foregone conclusion.
France and the colonies provide the context in which the history of Jews and Muslims prior to World War II evolved. Algerian Jews had gained French citizenship in the mid-nineteenth century while other Algerians had not. It was only during the French government's attempt to dampen the push for Algerian independence in the post-World War II period that other Algerians were awarded citizenship, only to have it revoked after independence. Publically, Algerian Jews tried to stay neutral during the fight for independence but privately lobbied for a continued French presence. “Indeed,” Mandel argues, “whatever the daily reality, colonial legacies––both in the story of Jewish victimization at the hands of Muslims and in the inequities built into the colonial structure and transferred to the metropole––created the context in which Muslim-Jewish relations would evolve in France” (79).
When the Algerian Jewish community moved to France in 1962, its members joined Jews who were migrating from Tunisia and Morocco in the wake of the creation of the State of Israel. Muslims, too, were moving to France, to seek better economic opportunities––mostly from Algeria but also from Morocco and Tunisia. North African Jews and Muslims all shared the sense of dislocation and often lived in close proximity to each other. Yet, there were significant differences. Jewish immigrants moved as families and they encountered an organized Jewish community with significant resources to help with the transition despite tensions between them and the old Israélite community. And they tended to be better educated than Muslim immigrants. Their migration would transform the French Jewish community in significant ways. When North African Muslims, mostly single men, migrated they could not draw on comparable resources.
Mandel argues that, after 1967, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict took center stage. The 1967 War mobilized Jewish organizations in unprecedented ways as the French government adopted a more pro-Arab stance. Throughout, Mandel distinguishes between the leadership of Jewish and Muslim organizations and ordinary Jews and Muslims on the ground. The former became increasingly polarized around the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, especially among student groups. In 1967, Zionist propaganda, she argues, collapsed all Muslims into one category: “Arab.” By so doing it emphasized their foreignness. For many Muslim student organizations, the distinction between Jews and Zionists became lost. Mandel also emphasizes the divisions among Jewish students. Many Jews on the extreme left became strong supporters of the Palestinian cause. Despite this, Mandel argues, conflicts between individual Jews and Muslims were rare.
It is in the period between 1968 and 1972, Mandel argues, when the ethnic allegiances of Jews and Muslims became more rigid. A space opened up, Mandel argues, created by the radical politics of the late 1960s, which was filled by Palestinian representatives, North African students, and leftists who linked Zionism to imperialism. Fights in the streets were not unheard of. The conflict had come home. Belleville in Paris and Marseille became tinder boxes. Mandel, however, emphasizes repeatedly that conditions locally and nationally combined with tensions emanating from the Middle East to sharpen the intercommunal antagonism. The Palestinian issue moved from the margins of French politics to the center.
Still, Mandel argues, Muslim immigrants were only marginally involved. When they were joined by their families and their situation became more permanent, Muslim workers organized protests about bad working conditions, expulsions and police repression. While individual Muslims were not actively supporting the Palestinian cause, the Mouvement des travailleurs arabes, the most important Muslim organization at the time, did so publicly. For many Jewish activists, the desire to promote the cause of social justice domestically, while concurrently supporting Israel, created a difficult balancing act.
With the election of Mitterand in 1981, there was a brief moment when alliances between the two communities became possible. Mandel attributes this to two factors. First, Mitterand's government recognized the cultural diversity in France, challenging the Jacobin model of citizenship. This allowed for open expression of identity politics. Second, a new generation of Muslim activists born in France came to dominate the landscape. Groups of Jews and Muslims joined forces to fight racism in French society. Think of SOS Racisme. Others took advantage of the new landscape to argue for their community's interests and saw SOS Racisme as a Zionist front. Moreover, certain Jewish leaders feared that Muslims and Jews would be lumped together as outsiders. In any event, this “pluricultural” moment came to an end by Mitterrand's second term. French government policy shifted and events on the ground made alliances difficult to maintain. In addition, the first Intifada broke out in Israel, increasing tensions. By the end of the 1980s, a much more hostile period was beginning, one that is ongoing today.
Reading Mandel's masterful account of the historical backdrop to the current situation is crucial to understanding the “narrative of polarization” that emerged between the two communities. This narrative, she argues, masks the heterogeneity of views among Muslims and Jews and has become “powerful and enduring.” There are a few points, however, that could have been elaborated further. First, Mandel claims that this binary relationship was not preordained. And yet, given the book's narrative, could not one argue that the emergence of political conflict between Muslims and Jews was overdetermined in the long durée, not “episodic”? And how would one prove that this emerging narrative reinforced the binary relationship, and that without it there could have been other outcomes? Second, there are a number of claims that Mandel makes for which I would have liked to see more evidence. They include the claim that Muslim immigrants were passive during this period. Besides press and police reports, does the LICRA or CRIF have such statistics? They are not mentioned in the list of archives consulted. Finally, the level of detail is such and the twists and turns so abundant that even though each chapter has an introduction and conclusion summarizing the main points, it was sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees.
Mandel's Muslims and Jews in France is a real contribution to knowledge, covering a period and a topic understudied in the existing literature. She is to be congratulated for writing such an excellent account of a critical period in Muslim-Jewish relations in France. Given the current situation, it is a subject critical to understanding contemporary France.
