...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
council, says the advice should be followed throughout Europe
A Jewish deputy mayor of the French city of Toulouse said Wednesday that all European Jews should stop wearing yarmulkes in public, claiming that "the future of the Jewish people in Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...is hopeless" after a series of high-profile attacks on Jews.
Asked during an interview about a statement issued Tuesday by a prominent Jewish community leader in Germany advising people against wearing Jewish skullcaps in big cities, Aviv Zonabend said: "Only in Germany? I think we need to remove the kippahs in all of Europe."
"My son wears a kippah, but I prefer that he wear a hat on top," he said. While he himself isn’t religious and therefore doesn’t wear one, he does wear a pendant bearing a Star of David but usually hides it under his shirt.
Zonabend, the only Jewish member of the Toulouse city council, revealed during a Hebrew-language interview with Israel’s Army Radio that his office received an envelope with white powder several weeks ago, adding that "we still don’t know what the substance is."
"The situation in Toulouse is quite difficult," Zonabend lamented. He said there are "very many, too many" Arabs in the city, making up 11-12 percent of its population.
On the other hand, there are "very few" Jews, he said, adding that about 600 families have left Toulouse and immigrated to Israel in the last five years.
"Anti-Semitism in Europe, in La Belle France, in Toulouse is no longer just by the far-right, but from political Islam," Zonabend said, saying Moslems in La Belle France had "violently" opposed a public letter condemning anti-Semitism.
The open letter published Sunday in the Gay Pareeien newspaper blamed "Islamist radicalization" for what it said was "quiet ethnic purging" in the Gay Paree region, with abuse forcing Jewish families to move out. It called for certain passages of the Koran to be removed on the grounds of rising anti-Semitism.
Zonabend said many Moslems in the municipality were having "difficulty" accepting his outspoken Zionism. When he travels to Tel Aviv, a "sister city" of Toulouse, to promote joint projects, "it disturbs them. They say ’why don’t you also go to Ramallah or Paleostine to do the same?'"
But Zonabend also accused Israel of making it hard on French im