Mick Hartley

Nora Bussigny in the Times of Israel:

If antisemitism has long plagued France, dating back to the Middle Ages, it’s now metastasizing in new, alarming ways, according to a recently published book by French journalist Nora Bussigny.

Titled “Les Nouveaux Antisémites” (“The New Antisemites”), it exposes virulent Jew-hatred endemic to many far-left organizations in France, infiltrated by Bussigny as part of a lengthy undercover investigation. Using a false identity, Bussigny uncovered pervasive antisemitism and anti-Zionism, now a common denominator among diverse groups that often disagree on other matters.

“I saw with my own eyes to what degree Islamists, far-left so-called ‘progressive’ militants and feminist, LGBT and ecological activists are closely linked in their shared hatred of Jews and Israel,” Bussigny told The Times of Israel during a recent interview on Zoom.

It was, she reports, a considerable challenge to act the part.

“At first, I went too quickly,” said Bussigny, whose mother is from Morocco, her father from France. “Participating in demonstrations, I made mistakes. For example, I’d say ‘Israel,’ which militants never say except for insults. They usually say ‘the Zionist entity,’ or if writing, they call it ‘Israhell.’ They also never say the IDF, but rather ‘the genocidal army.’ There were terms I had to learn to have the ‘right’ vocabulary.”

Bussigny also needed her best performance skills.

“Initially, some of the people looked at me with mistrust,” she added. “I had to really concentrate on how I spoke and acted when I was among them. They watch you to see if you’re chanting, if you’re happy to be there, if you’re filming. They’re suspicious. I made sure to look cheerful and excited to chant with everyone the glory of Hamas and Operation Al-Aqsa Flood [the terror group’s name for the October 7 atrocities]. I was so careful to play the part that it became almost schizophrenic for me.

It’d be nice to think we’re better here in the UK, but I doubt we can realistically make that claim.