Why mass migration could bring Israel-Hamas war to European streets

In November 2015, terrorists murdered 130 people, including 90 at the Bataclan theater in Paris. Jews in France have fled en masse to Israel after a series of anti-Semitic terrorist attacks.

France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, said it ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations after the Hamas attack, on the grounds that they constituted a threat to public order. The decision was later overturned by a French court.

“The Palestinian cause has long been close to the hearts of French Muslims, who often identify with the suffering of Palestinians through their own experiences of discrimination,” said Camille Lons of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

There are also tensions with the Muslim community over measures taken by the government to enforce French secularism, such as the ban on the veil. In June, there were riots several days later police shot 17-year-old Nahel Merzouka 17-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan and Algerian origin.

About 80 percent of France’s 6.8 million Muslims are from former French colonies in North Africa. Among them, 43.2 percent are from Algeria, 27.5 percent from Morocco and 11.4 percent from Tunisia.

The sum of 1.4 million Algerians, 1 million Moroccans and some 434,000 Tunisians equates to about 4 percent of the total French population. Until recently, they could benefit from favorable visa conditions.

Macron is now seeking to pass a new immigration bill, the 29th since 1980, which will create new powers to strip foreigners of their residence permits if they do not adhere to the values ​​of the French Republic.

Authorities expect 140,000 asylum applications this year, up from 130,000 last year, with most of the applications coming from Afghans. Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, recently estimated the number of illegal immigrants in France “between 600,000 and 900,000”.

He pledged not to accept a single landing of migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa in France. Mr. Darmanin deplored a “jihadist atmosphere” in France after the latest terrorist attack.