A representative of the French Jewish refugees today accused the French Government of flagrant anti-Jewish bias in “failing to react” to discrimination by the United Arab Republic against French Jewish nationals in Egypt.
Henri Cohen, in a letter to the influential Paris daily, Le Monde, asserted that French Jews, who formed 90 per cent of the French colony in Egypt, had been barred from returning to their homes after the Suez crisis. Mr. Cohen said this action was taken by UAR authorities despite an article of the Franco-Egyptian financial agreement signed in Zurich last August.
Declaring that the French Jewish refugees have been placed on a black list by the Cairo authorities, Mr. Cohen stated that the French Government had reacted “only feebly” to this discrimination because “it wants to renew its commercial ties with Egypt even if it must sacrifice French citizens of the Jewish faith” to do so.
Mr. Cohen said the situation of the French Jewish refugees was tragic. He reported that they were mainly former merchants, industrialists and landowners who have usually passed the normal employment age and must live on small Government subsidies, He said that if their property in Egypt were transferred to France, it would enable them to resume a productive life.
Mr. Cohen appealed to France “which has sacrificed a group of French citizens in the interests of world politics, contrary to the spirit of the French constitution which stipulates no racial discrimination.” He added that the French Government was “morally bound” to grant the refugees financial compensation equal to the value of the property left in Egypt.
The Cohen statement contended that not a single French Jew had been granted the visa needed to enable him to return to Egypt to settle the issue of his property there. It was learned from the World Jewish Congress, however, that a very small number of French Jews had returned to Egypt but they have met with consistent bad faith on the part of Cairo authorities. The returning French Jews have been unsuccessful in efforts to obtain return of their sequestrated or confiscated properties.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
