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FRENCH JEWISH LEADER
T EX T C OM P I L E D B Y L I Z S A M UE L S
JUDGE
DISMISSES
CASE
AGAINST
President Cristina
Fernández de Kirchner
FERNANDEZ
DE KIRCHNER
Argentine judge Daniel Rafecas has dismissed the case against
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, saying documents originally brought forth by deceased prosecutor Alberto Nisman failed
to meet necessary standards for opening a formal court investigation. “I dismiss the case because no crime was committed,” Rafecas
said. Kirchner is accused of covering up Iran’s involvement in the
1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires.
Nisman was found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head in his
bathroom on 18 January, four days after filing a report accusing
Iran of ordering the attack via the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, and alleging that Fernández was trying to shield Iranian officials from prosecution in exchange for oil.
Nisman drafted an arrest warrant for Kirchner and a cabinet minister prior to his mysterious death, which was initially called a suicide, but is now suspected of being a murder.
The head of the
French Jewish
community has
publicly endorsed
National Front
leader Marine
Le Pen, describing her as “irreproachable”.
Roger Cukierman,
chairman of the
Representative
Council of Jewish
National Front leader
Institutions (Crif),
Marine Le Pen
said Le Pen could
not be “faulted personally” for anti-Semitism. He
continued: “The NF is a party for which I would
never vote, but it’s a party which today doesn’t
commit violent acts. Let’s be clear: all the violence [against Jews] is now committed by young
Muslims.” Despite the anti-Semitism of Le Pen’s
father, Jean-Marie, who led the party until 2011,
nearly 14% of the Jewish community voted for the
NF in the 2012 election. That figure represents a
sharp increase on the 2007 election, when 4.3% of
French Jews voted for the far-right party.
However, Cukierman’s comments attracted criticism from some prominent French Jews. Holocaust historian Serge Klarsfeld said: “Ms Le Pen
has not broken ties with her father. Her father
is the party’s honorary president.” A European
Jewish group J-Call and CCLJ, an organisation
representing left-leaning Belgian Jews, also
condemned the Crif chairman’s statement. In
response, Cukierman told Jewish newspaper
Actualité Juive: “With regards to Marine Le Pen, I
was referring to her legal irreproachability, and
not her morals. She has always been very careful
to not make any anti-Semitic remarks.”
DIVERS FIND HOARD OF 1 000-YEAR-OLD COINS ON ISRAEL SEABED
Scuba divers have discovered a rare haul of 1 000-year-old
gold coins inscribed in Arabic on the sea bed off Israel, a find
archaeologists say may shed light on Muslim rule in that age.
About 2 000 coins dated to the 11th century, a period when
the Fatimid Islamic dynasty dominated the Middle East, have
so far been raised from the depths.
The treasure, which was probably exposed during recent
winter storms, is thought to have sunk in a shipwreck near the
6 JEWISH LIFE
ISSUE 82
ancient Roman port of Caesarea in the eastern Mediterranean.
The amateur divers chanced upon the find last month. At first
they thought the coins were a children’s toy, but a subsequent
underwater search by experts netted about 1 000 coins.
A subsequent dive in the same spot yielded another, similar
amount of coins and the total find weighed in at between
5.5kg to 6kg of gold. The bullion value in current terms is
around $240 000 (around R2 784 000).
PHOTOGRAPHS: BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM; WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
SUPPORTS LE PEN