Today's Date:

Mr President,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted, Mr President, to take up our dialogue again for the fourth time on the occasion of this annual dinner, which is a key moment in France’s public life. I said the fourth time, but I am well aware that a Prime Minister’s term of office is shorter than that of a President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France. Even though our personal links of esteem and friendship go back much further, I think that the official dialogue that we have undertaken since the dinner held on 29 November 1997–with you in your capacity as the President of the CRIF and me in my capacity as Prime Minister–is still just as helpful and productive. With sincerity based on true goodwill, we can make progress together in the discussion of issues that concern our Jewish citizens primarily, but also concern the nation as a whole. I would add that I am always very happy to encounter so many friendly faces and distinguished guests in this very warm atmosphere that you have managed to create.

On this anniversary of the death of Yitzhak Rabin, I think of him first as a great champion of peace, who made the courageous choice to start, in Oslo, the dialogue with the Palestinians and their leader, Yasser Arafat, that opened the way to peace.

Yet, in spite of this initiative, the fate of peace in the Middle East is still a great cause of concern for us and even, this time, a cause for very serious alarm.

In my remarks last year, I welcomed the great hopes for progress in the peace process then emerging from the Middle East, and Israel in particular. I spoke of the hope that the French Government placed in the Israeli people’s choice to put a new team, led by Ehud Barak, into power. Even though I was well aware that many important obstacles, such as the status of Jerusalem and the fate of refugees, still had to be overcome, I expressed France’s wish for the two parties to act with wisdom, flexibility, broadmindedness and imagination. I repeated this wish and this hope during my visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. I have not forgotten, Mr President, that you were there by my side.

Unfortunately, whereas the Camp David Summit held out great hope for all those seeking peace, recent events have been a cause for disappointment, worry and anguish. Please believe me, Mr President, I do not underestimate the sensitivity that you expressed when you spoke of the Israeli people’s distress and their despair about peace. I am also aware that on the Palestinian side, violence is often the expression of the despair felt by those who feel that time is passing and that the State they hope for is not coming into being with dignity and freedom.

Thus, the delicate work undertaken by Anwar El Sadat and Menahem Begin, and carried on by Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, which was based on each party’s confidence in the other’s ability to keep its commitments, has suddenly degenerated into the language of hate and acts of violence. France, which–as you know–is a friend of Israel’s, still maintains that there is no possible way open for these two peoples other than dialogue and the search for peace. Two years ago, I recalled the words of Yitzhak Rabin, who said that the risks of peace are far preferable to the dark certainties that await any nation in wartime.xxx In these troubled times, this conviction should continue to guide us and the principles behind our diplomatic action. Ehud Barak wisely stressed this yesterday by saying that he would not despair of finding peace.

That is why, as soon as fighting broke out in the Palestinian Territories, France and the European Union called on both sides to do everything to put an end to the violence, to preserve the progress made at Camp David and to restart talks. We urged them to take parallel measures to halt the escalation and to ease tensions. The European Union continued to make the voice of reason and calm heard at the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit, where the French Presidency asked Javier Solana to be its representative.

For us, the overall tone of the final communiqué from the Cairo Arab Summit illustrates the gravity of the current situation. The text nevertheless expresses the wish for negotiations towards a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to end the conflicts that are tearing the Middle East apart. That is why, once calm has returned, the parties should consider restarting discussion of the substantive issues. The Palestinian people should be able to have faith in a better future once again. Israel should have definitive assurance its security requirements will be met.

The French Government will continue to call for application of all the agreements that have been signed. Under the current terrible circumstances, the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli leaders must make meaningful gestures towards the de-escalation of tensions. This is the spirit of the agreement reached between Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat Wednesday night and Thursday morning. This agreement contains the main arrangements agreed upon at Sharm el-Sheikh, including the withdrawal of Israeli tanks from around Gaza and Ramallah, action by the Palestinian police to curb demonstrations, gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lifting of the blockade, along with a resumption of co-operation between the parties on security issues. We must continue in this direction. In spite of the emotions triggered by the lethal attack in Jerusalem and the persistence of sporadic outbreaks of fighting, we hope that the violence will continue to diminish.

Mr President,

Recent events occurring in the Middle East have had serious and shocking consequences in our own country.

You were right to stress the concern, and even anguish in some cases, caused by attacks or threats against synagogues, Jewish schools and cultural centres, and businesses and homes that belong, or are thought to belong, to Jewish people.

I share your outrage at this inadmissible violence. I also share the indignation of those who witness the firebombing or attempted firebombing of synagogues, here in France, at the start of the new millennium, more than half a century after the burning down of synagogues by Nazism in Europe.

Of course, nobody would dream of equating these two periods, which are so totally different, or comparing systematic policies with isolated attacks. But I have already had occasion to stress the Government’s absolute determination to combat such acts. Tonight, I am repeating this formal pledge to you. Protecting freedom of worship is a fundamental duty of the lay Republic, as is the fight against any manifestation of racism or anti-Semitism. It is the Government’s duty to ensure this freedom with attention, diligence and constancy. Daniel Vaillant, the Minister of the Interior, has decided on a set of security measures to cope with these threats and acts of violence. These measures have been presented to the representatives of the Jewish community. Of course, these measures were not enough to stop all the attacks, but they have had an undeniable deterrent effect. Law enforcement officials, acting on instructions from judges, have carried out investigations of which several have already led to the arrest of perpetrators of acts of violence.

In a democracy, it is only natural for solidarity to be expressed. You have just done so yourself, Mr President, when you spoke of the extensive family, cultural and sentimental links between many French Jews and the State of Israel, but none of these links could lead to opposition and aggressiveness with regard to fellow citizens. Even though each of us is free to feel that we belong to one spiritual family or another, this feeling must give way to our conviction that we are all citizens of the same single national community, which encompasses all of us and instils in us the same rights and duties. This is the Republican pact. It is why I insisted on seeing the leaders of the main religions in our country–Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish–who unanimously upheld tolerance as a value we all share. I rely on each individual’s sense of responsibility to ensure that the fighting plaguing the Middle East gets no echo or replication on the soil of the French Republic. In particular, the Government will fight anti-Semitism with all its determination and all its strength, no matter what the causes are. My personal commitment on this point is, as you know, total.

Mr President,

The profound links between the institutions that you represent and the national community are rooted in history. This history includes moments of glory and times of darkness. Ever since we started meeting in this way, we have spoken regularly about those dark times and particularly about the anti-Semitic crimes of the Vichy regime.

As you have just said, the Mattéoli Commission submitted its final report to me on 17 April, after three years of painstaking work.

Its work has just been published by the Documentation Française. It takes up a total of eight volumes, plus the previously published guide to historical research and the selection of legislative texts on the theft and restitution of assets. I welcome the CRIF’s decision to award its annual prize to all of the members of this commission. You are highlighting the importance of the task that they have accomplished. I would like to join you, in my own name and in the name of the Government as a whole, in this expression of collective gratitude. I would like to salute the role played by all the Commission members, the decisive part that historians played in its work and to say once again how much the moral authority of the Commission’s President, Jean Mattéoli, and his Vice President, Professor Ady Steg, helped to establish its national and international credibility.

The Government lent its full support to the work of the Mattéoli Commission on the basis of the conviction that injustices inherited from the past had to be addressed. Because Jews all over Europe were victims of barbarity, it was only right that those who have taken on the task of defending the rights of Jewish communities everywhere in the world should have a say in the debate. But, since we think that this history is above all the history of France, which we need to shed light on and understand, it was necessary for us to assume this past with open eyes.

The Mattéoli Commission made a number of recommendations in its interim reports and at the end of its final report, which establishes the precise scale of the plunder process set in place by the Vichy regime, once the law on the status of Jews was passed, as well as the exact extent of the restitutions made by the Republic after its restoration. The Government is making sure that these recommendations are put into effect. The Government was particularly struck by the importance of three of these recommendations.

The first concerns setting up a Commission to deal with restitution claims from victims of plunder. This commission, made up of judges, law professors and qualified experts, was set up by a Decree of 10 September 1999. As in the case of the Mattéoli Commission, we worked in close conjunction with the Commission President, Pierre Drai, and its Director, Préfet Lucien Kalfon, to give the Commission the resources required for carrying out its tasks as and when they were needed. In light of the number of claims received, the number of Commission rapporteurs was increased. Today they are working under the authority of Jean Géronimi, Honorary General Advocate of the Cour de Cassation and a former Inspector General of the Judiciary. The Commission was recently enabled to sit in smaller sessions, which will help it to speed up the processing of claims considerably. The Commission has just moved into new premises that will help improve its reception of the public. Its communications will be improved by setting up a web site to provide information about its action to web users in France and around the world, including the United States and Israel in particular. I welcome this development.

In keeping with the commitment I made, the Government has always followed the Commission’s recommendations. The Commission has made its recommendations in the spirit of justice. It made especially sure to make it possible to provide compensation for assets that had not already been indemnified in the past. I am delighted that all of the private institutions concerned by the Commission’s work have adapted the same attitude as the Government.

It was here that I announced the second measure last year. It deals with compensation for the orphans of Jewish deportees. After painstaking joint work by several Ministries, the Government published a decree on 13 July 2000 that introduces a measure of compensation for orphans whose parents were victims of anti-Semitic persecution. Compensation has already been granted in nearly 2,500 cases either in the form of a pension or a lump sum payment.

I know that this Decree created some misunderstandings, particularly on the part of associations representing deported resistance fighters. I would like to repeat that this Decree does not mean that the Government intended to measure individual suffering, which was severe and painful for each victim. France owes an immense debt to those who fought for their country, many of whom died after being deported. They saved France’s honour. The Government’s initiative is merely intended to be part of a special process undertaken with the belated recognition of France’s responsibility in the persecution of the Jews. I would like to recall what I said here last year. I am convinced that the heartbreaking situation of orphans of deported parents calls for special treatment. In addition to the hardship of being Jewish in a country where they were under constant threat of arrest, deportation and extermination, they suffered the grief and terrible consequences of the loss of their parents–both parents in many cases–in their childhood and then in their life as adults. Fifty years later, this situation calls for special compensation–imperfect as it may be–from the Republic.

The Mattéoli Commission also recommended setting up a foundation to collect public and private funds that cannot be claimed by private individuals. State Councillor François Bernard submitted an exhaustive report to me. The contents were widely approved by the Jewish institutions, including the CRIF, to which various Ministries had submitted the report. These consultations led to the drafting of the text that has now been submitted for the Council of State’s approval, as is the rule for all foundations. The Government intends to have the by-laws of the foundation published by early December, at the latest, so that the Foundation can be established by the start of the new year. The Foundation’s board will choose its President. With your approval, Mr President, and that of several other institutions that will be represented within the Foundation, I have told Simone Veil, whom I salute this evening, that the Government would be delighted if she would accept this responsibility.

The purpose of the Foundation will be to promote research and publish information on anti-Semitic persecution and violations of human rights perpetrated during the Second World War, and on the victims of this persecution. For this purpose, it is explicitly stated that the Foundation shall support the Contemporary Jewish Documentation Centre and the Unknown Jewish Martyr Memorial. Extension work on these establishments is under way with the unwavering support of the Government–in line with the commitment I made back in 1997–as well as the support of the City of Paris and the Ile-de-France Regional authority. The Foundation will also serve a social purpose. In particular, it shall support the work of associations that provide aid for victims of persecution. It will receive regular information about efforts to return assets stolen by the Nazis –particularly works of art–to their rightful owners.

All these actions mean that the Foundation will ensure the future of historical research on this period, and I am thinking in particular of the task of collecting oral testimony, which is growing more urgent with each passing day. In the same spirit, the Foundation will participate in the education given to our children about this period. The Foundation could be involved in some of the existing school programmes. As you mentioned, the Minister for Education, Jack Lang, has thrown his support behind the widespread distribution of a textbook on the Holocaust to schools.

Mr President, allow me to stress the fact that, in addition to the Central Government, which will endow the Foundation with FRF 1.475 billion, in line with the Mattéoli Commission’s recommendations, all of the public and private institutions concerned by the plunder of assets have given the Government their full agreement on their contributions to the Foundation. Some of them, including French banks and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, have decided to give even more than the sums recommended by the Commission. With an endowment of FRF 2.578 billion, the Foundation will be the biggest ever to be established in France. With regard to the past, this is simply what justice requires, since the sums contributed to its endowment come from plundered assets. With regard to the future, this marks the Foundation’s considerable capacity to act in the memory of the Shoah and the responsibilities that it will bear.

Thanks to the Mattéoli Commission’s recommendations, France can be proud of having put in place a set of compensation measures, with the involvement of the representative bodies of the Jewish community and all of the public and private institutions concerned. In the last three years, the Government has provided a transparent explanation of the purpose of its action to Jewish organisations and foreign authorities, particularly those in the United States and Israel. My contacts with the President of the World Jewish Congress, Mr Bronfmann, in Stockholm at the start of this year and the recent talks between France’s State Secretary for Heritage and Cultural Decentralisation, Michel Duffour, and the American Deputy Treasury Secretary, Stuart Eizenstadt, who is responsible in his country for matters relating to stolen assets, give me reason to think that our action has now been understood.

A Decree was enacted on 19 October this year to ensure that the heirs of victims are fully informed of their rights. The right to consult the lists of dormant account holders drawn up as part of the Mattéoli Commission’s work is given by the Decree to associations working to perpetuate the memory of the persecution carried out under anti-Semitic legislation and to defend the material and moral interest of the victims. Thus, insofar as any Jew whose assets were stolen in France can now obtain restitution through the mechanisms that we have put in place, it does not make sense for an American judge to grant himself jurisdiction to hear disputes between a few American plaintiffs and French banks relating to occurrences during this period. Thus the French government sent a memorandum to the judge asking him to review his position. In addition, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hubert Védrine, has given Mr Adréani, Ambassadeur de France and former Ambassador to the United States, a mission to inform the American government that these legal proceedings are not only pointless, but that they could hinder the process for compensating the damages suffered by the victims.

I understand that, for many Jews who lived in France during the war, for those who lived in hiding as children for fear of arrest, the Government’s measures may seem inadequate, despite their unprecedented scope. I am aware of the suffering of those people who wrote to me asking for measures above and beyond the Commission’s recommendations. But not everything can be remedied. The individual and collective suffering is, by its very essence, beyond compensation. France has now acknowledged and assumed its responsibilities. It is now up to the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah to respond to some of these claims when they relate to situations of distress.

Mr President,

Before closing, I would like to share some thoughts about our Nation’s relationship with History.

France has undoubtedly taken too long and found it hard to take a clear-sighted look at its own history. This clear-sightedness is the courage of our intelligence. Looking at our past meant remembering that, during those dark hours, our country’s institutions failed us. The President of the Republic’s speech on 16 July 1995 and my predecessor’s decision to set up the Mattéoli Commission made it possible to act with clear-sightedness, to act for the sake of memory. I am sure that historians will regard the process started nearly three years ago as exemplary. I would like to stress the scale of the task accomplished. Not to glorify us, since it was more than time for justice to be done, but to remind you that, in these specific matters, political will can accomplish a great deal.

Thus we are now bound to ensure that other dark times in our national history get the same treatment. My Government has made the same effort with regard to the tragic events of 17 October 1961, which led to the death of dozens of Algerians in Paris. France will have to continue doing so with the same rigour. I am thinking in particular of the appeal that has just be made by several intellectuals relating to the use of torture during the Algerian war with the official approval of some French authorities. I am sure that this work to uncover the truth will not weaken our national community. On the contrary, it will strengthen it and allow it to make better use of the lessons learned from its past to build its future.

Mr President,

The message of the culture and traditions that your institutions represent is more than just a religious message. It relates to spiritual values and underlines the need for freedom and justice. This need requires us to reassert our commitment every day. In France, this takes the form of the fight against racism and anti-Semitism, the fight for education and culture, and action to promote social justice. In the greater world, the fight is for human rights, democracy and the institution of international justice.

Since France is now holding the Presidency of the European Union, no one should forget that it was here in Europe, a civilised land, that fascism and Nazism were born, and that it was on this continent, with its wealth of cultures, that absolute evil manifested itself. That is why the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was approved by the Heads of State and Government at their meeting in Biarritz on 13 and 14 October of this year, has more than just symbolic value. It enshrines human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity as the heart of the European project. It affirms that Europe is founded on democracy, the rule of law and respect for the human being.

I am sure, Mr President, that you see, as I do, that the construction of a united Europe on the basis of these values holds out the promise of peace, freedom and brotherhood. These are the aspirations of humankind and each of us in our own place must continue to fight for them.