Today's Date:

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Monday condemned anti-Semitism as he received an international prize from a leading Jewish organization, saying that anti-Jewish behavior deserved "zero tolerance."

Sarkozy was awarded the 2003 Tolerance Prize of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for his work in combating anti-Semitism in France

The Jerusalem-based center hunts down Nazi war criminals throughout the world. "Confronted with anti-Semitism and racism, I know only two words," said Sarkozy: "Zero tolerance." (…) "You don't explain anti-Semitism and racism," he said: "You fight it."

Tensions in the Middle East have led to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents in France in 2002. In its annual report on racism in France, the National Consultative Committee on Human Rights (CNCDH) said that out of 313 acts of racist violence documented in 2002, 193 were anti-Semitic.
These acts "affect not only the Jewish community but the entire national community," Sarkozy said on Monday. "I refuse categorically to explain this anti-Semitic violence in terms of the Middle East situation," he said. "Anti-Semitism existed before the State of Israel."

The prize was presented during a colloquium at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris on the theme of "Education for tolerance: the resurgence of anti-Semitism.". Shimon Samuels, Paris representative of the Wiesenthal Center, said the prize was being awarded to Sarkozy because of his "recognition of the scourge of anti-Semitism."

United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Sergio Vieira de Mello described anti-Semitism as "a highly-resistant virus of the mind." (…) "Islamophobia seems to draw on the same resources as judaeophobia," he said. A just and lasting Middle East peace "would deprive the agents of hate of a pretext they have been exploiting for many a year," he said.

Nathan Sharansky, once a Soviet dissident and now Israel's Minister of the Diaspora, and UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura likewise received Wiesenthal Center prizes.