Heil Hitler salute at the French Consulate of Jerusalem’s High School

Jonathan Simon Sellem: Open Letter to the French Republic, her ministers, diplomats, and professors… (originally published in French)

To: Vincent Peillon, French Minister of National Education,
Laurent Fabius, French Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mr. Christophe Bigot, Ambassador of France in Israel
Frédéric Desagneaux, Consul General of France in Jerusalem in relation with the Palestinian Authority,

As a parliamentary candidate in the 8th district of the French from abroad, but especially as a citizen and a father of Franco-Israeli family, I am writing this Open Letter.

I’d like to express my bluntly disgust regarding a matter concerning the French Republic and its values, that was kept secret until now.

I talked with teachers and students of the Lycée français in Jerusalem, the Consular School (Street of the Prophets).

All of them have confirmed the facts summarized here.

For start, let me bring to your attention the email sent by the headmaster of the school, Stéphane Le Tortorec, to his professors, on the eve of the commemorations of the Holocaust.

Hello

Tomorrow at 10:00 will resonate a siren at the remembrance of the Holocaust that requires a minute of silence. You can mark this moment personally if you wish, and allow students who manifest the desire to join to do so. But avoid at all costs to solicit students or impose them to join and avoid any debate on the topic: the situation is tight enough at the moment (the death this week of two young people in the West Bank) to trigger violent reactions (I think especially about the 4e grade) and controversies that can only hurt each other unnecessarily.

 

Thank you for your understanding

 

Sincerely,
Stéphane LE TORTOREC
Headmaster
Lycée Français de Jérusalem
66 Street of the Prophets
BP 37001
JERUSALEM 95141

Gentlemen, let me express my amazement regarding the fact the headmaster of the High School of the Jerusalem Consular does not require from all teachers and students to observe a minute of silence for the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, in which France took part.

Let me express my legitimate anger when I see that the National Education invites teachers not “to solicit to provoke a debate” about what happened less than 70 years ago.

Let me be rightly outraged to see this principal daring to argue that these ceremonies “could unnecessarily hurt each other.”

Mr. Minister of Education, Mr. Consul of France in Jerusalem, Mr. Minister of Foreign Affairs, that’s not all…

According to several witnesses, at least two non-Jew students in this school of the Republic made the Hitler salute while the siren in memory of Holocaust victims resounded throughout Israel.

In the one and indivisible capital of the Jewish state, these students honored, with the silent complicity of the French administration, the Consul, and the headmaster, the greatest criminal of humanity.

I demand the immediate suspension of the High School Principal.

I demand that an administrative investigation be opened as soon as possible so that the conditions that have led to this shameful situation will be known and fought.

I demand that all the students from this consular school, and the Consul, visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, in educational purposes.

I demand the removal of the diplomatic immunity of the Consul General of France in Jerusalem, who’s in charge of the school.

This letter will also be sent to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – also Minister of Foreign Affairs ; to Shai Piron, Minister of Education ; Tzipi Livni, Minister of Justice ; as well as Yossi Gal, Israeli Ambassador in France.

The return to Paris of the Consul General of France in Jerusalem and the headmaster of the school seems urgent.

Mr. Ambassador of France in Israel, I have seen your tears flow during your speech on the Day of the Holocaust Remembrance in Roglit, and you need to be informed, because I know you ignored what your consul in Jerusalem, and the French school attached to it, did.

Jonathan Simon Sellem – sellemalassemblee@gmail.com
Parliamentary candidate in the 8th district of the French overseas

Thanks to Objectivité.org site was the first to inform me of this scandal.
Thanks to Dreuz.info site who also conducted a thorough and documented investigation on the subject.