France has recently sustained a painful shock. After the murder of a teacher who dared to show his students caricatures of Muhammad, terrorism hit Nice, where three citizens were murdered in a church in the coastal city. The dizzying effect of these violent events in France spread abroad, with a wave of Muslim protests all over the world against French President Emmanuel Macron, who dared to stand up for freedom of speech and the secular values of the French Republic.
Makor Rishon reported that as part of France's battle against the growth of radical Islam within its borders, President Macron declared that it was vital to "free France from foreign influences." The president is determined to step up tracking of foreign funding sources for French mosques, mainly money that is transferred from the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The president is justifiably disturbed by foreign governments' involvement in what is happening in his country, especially since foreign money funds radical elements that are undermining his country's core values. The thing is that even France has a tendency to support political, sometimes radical, political activity in foreign countries. According to the watchdog NGO Monitor, the French government has directly or indirectly sent hundreds of thousands of shekels of funding to Israeli groups B'Tselem, Emek Shaveh, Ir Amim, Yesh Din, and the BDS organization Who Profits. Of course, these are not groups that encourage terrorism and certainly are not the equivalent of the imams who preach murderous jihad in mosques, but intervention in sensitive issues that lie at the heart of an Israeli political dispute crosses a red line.
However, the French government also funds Palestinian organizations; not human rights or charity groups, but groups linked to terrorism, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. From 2016-2019, for example, the French government's development agency transferred some 320,000 euros to the Ma'an development center. In 2018, ties between Ma'an employees and the PFLP came to light. The Australian government stopped supporting the organization for this reason, but the government of France? It continued to do so.
Tens of thousands of euros more to a BDS organization, more money for an organization that pushes for legal action against Israel – all in the open, all researched – and all the ramifications, sometimes painful, that has on the reality in which we live. With excuses of fighting an occupation or supporting human rights, the French government is also supporting radical elements that have the potential to incite and murder.
But unlike France, which is determined to throw off "foreign influences," Israel is evading its obligation to set limits. The governments of Europe behave as if this is one of their colonies, and France is an example of one of the smaller funders. The funding from Germany or the EU itself is more massive. Millions of euros a year are spilled here to change Israel from within, in ways that skirt both diplomacy and democracy. For years, the prime minister and the Foreign Ministry have received reports about foreign funding, and they are put at the bottom of a big pile. The claims made therein must reach the decision-makers, but we could also look at France.
Israel should stand alongside France in the just battle it is waging against radical Islam's destructive penetration of its cities and neighborhoods. France is fighting for freedom of speech and western culture. But in the meantime, along with this support, someone in the Israeli government should try to hold a mirror up to them. True, it's not exactly the same thing. But still.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
