Page 8 - aruba-today-20181110

A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 10 November 2018
A century after fighting for Paris, leaders mark armistice

By RAF CASERT visit Paris before returning
Associated Press to the United States."
PARIS (AP) — Paris, the City Far from every surviving U.S.
of Light, always was the soldier from the 1914-1918
grandest prize of World War war made it to the French
I, either to conquer or de- capital, but on Sunday,
fend. President Donald Trump
So it is only fitting that when will join his French counter-
victors and vanquished part and host, Emmanuel
meet to mark the centen- Macron, and others to re-
nial of the armistice this member the millions who
weekend, the biggest cer- died during the first global
emony should be on the conflict.
famed Champs-Elysees at Alan Seeger, the American
the Arc de Triomphe. poet that Macron lauded
On Friday, some lead- in his speech to the U.S.
ers began remembrance Congress last year, already
events in a wide crescent captured the seeds of rec-
of cemeteries and trench- onciliation in 1916 when
rutted battlefields north of he wrote, as a soldier in
the capital. the French Foreign Legion,
British Prime Minister The- that "I never took arms
resa May laid wreaths for British Prime Minister Theresa May, center, and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, right, lay out of any hatred against
the first and last British sol- wreaths at the graves of British World War I soldiers John Parr and George Ellison at the St. Sym- Germany or the Germans,
dier killed in the fighting — phorien cemetery in Mons, Belgium, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. but purely out of love for
the two were buried across Associated Press France."
one another near Mons Like other leaders visiting
in southern Belgium. One uel Macron continued his a unique and poignant re- actly a century after the ar- national cemeteries dotted
grave holds the remains of pilgrimage of WWI sites and minder of the cost of the mistice. around northern France,
Pvt. John Parr, killed Aug. caught up with May, as the First World War," said May. Such was the symbolic im- Trump will visit two burial
21, 1914. The other grave is two present day leaders of Sixty-nine heads of state portance of the French sites that highlight how the
of Pvt. George Ellison, who the Allied forces that de- and government will un- capital that victorious U.S. United States came of age
survived some of the war's feated Germany walked derscore that message at Gen. John J. Pershing said as a military power after it
worst battles but was shot past graves at the Thiepval the Tomb of the Unknown it was his "desire that every joined the war in 1917 and
on Nov. 11, 1918 — the memorial. Soldier in Paris on the 11th man in the American Expe- set it up to become a dom-
war's last day. "Each cemetery and me- hour of the 11th day of the ditionary Forces should be inating force for the next
French President Emman- morial across the world is 11th month on Sunday, ex- given the opportunity to century.q

French government sounds alarm over rising anti-Semitic acts

By ANGELA CHARLTON ister wrote. He expressed ish perpetrators, to take
ALEX TURNBULL particular concern be- down potentially violent
PARIS (AP) — France's prime cause overall, anti-Semitic hate speech online more
minister sounded the alarm acts had been on the de- quickly and to help teach-
Friday over a sharp rise in cline in recent years. ers who report anti-Semitic
anti-Semitic acts this year, The government won't re- behavior.
pledging to increase efforts lease specific figures until "Each attack against one
to punish perpetrators and the end of the year. Over of our compatriots be-
police hate speech that is all of 2017, the government cause he or she is Jewish
flourishing online. reported 311 anti-Semitic resonates like new broken
Resurgent anti-Semitism acts, from threats to swasti- glass," the prime minister
is of national concern in kas on Jewish gravesites to said, in reference to the
a country with Europe's physical attacks on people mass crackdown on Jews
largest Jewish population, wearing kippas. That was throughout Germany and
which still struggles to wash down from 335 the year be- Austria on Nov. 9, 1938
away the stain of collabo- In this Sunday, April 30, 2017 file picture, independent centrist fore, but the number of vio- known as the Night of Bro-
ration with the Nazis and presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron looks at some of the lent anti-Semitic acts rose, ken Glass, or Kristallnacht.
2,500 photographs of young Jews deported from France, during
in recent years has seen a visit to the Shoah memorial in Paris, France. along with anti-Muslim and "It is up to each French per-
deadly Islamic extremist at- Associated Press other violent hate crimes. son to mobilize 'for' some-
tacks targeting Jewish sites. The Interior Ministry said part thing: for life together, for
Prime Minister Edouard give a reason for the rise, words and very quickly they of the recent rise could be France's identity, for the
Philippe announced on his but Jewish leaders lament- turn into acts," she said, attributed to a government values of the Republic."
Facebook page a 69 per- ed the explosion of hate noting the recent deadly push over the past year to Islamic extremists targeted
cent rise in the number of speech online and beyond. attack on the Tree of Life encourage people to re- a Jewish school and ko-
anti-Semitic acts reported "There's this feeling that synagogue in Pittsburgh. port hate crimes, including sher supermarket in two of
to police in the first nine something has opened up, Despite years of French a new online portal to file France's most deadly terror-
months of 2018 compared a gateway to intolerance government efforts to fight police reports. ist attacks in recent years,
to the same period last and hate," said rabbi and it, "we are very far from The prime minister prom- and some blame Islamic
year. researcher Delphine Horvil- having finished with anti- ised new measures to bet- radicalism for resurgent an-
The government couldn't leur. "Words kill. It starts with Semitism," the prime min- ter handle victims and pun- ti-Semitism in France. q