The head of the French Jewish community, Roger Cukierman, said he was ‘’disgusted’’ by the ‘’shameful’’ comments made by a former foreign minister who claimed that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls ‘’is under Jewish influence.’’
In an interview with BFMTV channel, 92-year-old Roland Dumas, a former cabinet minister in the socialist government of Francois Mitterrand, said Monday that Valls has "personal alliances’’ and is under Jewish "influence" of his wife Anne Gravoin, a celebrated violinist who is Jewish.
Valls has been vocal in his defense of Jews in France, both before and after the January Islamist attacks that killed 17 people, including four Jews in a kosher supermarket. Over the weekend, following the attacks in Copenhagen and the desecretation of a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, Valls stressed the need for high security in France to defend against what he called "Islamo-fascism."
He called upon Jews to remain in France, promising the "strongest possible" legal response after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called anew upon European Jews to emigrate to Israel.
"Dumas holds an anti-Semitic rhetoric in line with what we hear from the mouth of Soral, Dieudonné, Jean-Marie Le Pen and others," said Cukierman, who heads CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish institutions, in a reference to several people known for their anti-Semitic outbusts and Holocaust denial statements.
Asked to comment, Valls told reporters he would be "sullied" were he to respond, but said Dumas was "a man with a known past and his remarks which have done no credit to the Republic for a long time."
In a statement, the Socialist Party said Dumas' statements were "unworthy of a Socialist decorated by the Republic".