A Freudian slip by Gérard Araud, French Ambassador to the United States
of America, has prompted outrage after he distinguished between French Jews
targeted by terrorists and “ordinary citizens”. In a letter to French citizens
living in the US following the terrorist attacks in Paris, Araud wrote: “These
are the foundations of our model of society that the terrorists seek to
destroy: Yesterday journalists and Jews; now ordinary citizens whose only crime
was to enjoy life on a Friday night in Paris.”
The letter prompted disgust on social media. Ron Agam, a French-born
artist living in New York, posted his outrage on Facebook: “Tonight French
people in the US received a letter from the French Ambassador about the events
in Paris. To my surprise I learned that I, the Jew that I am, was not a regular
French citizen, I was a Jew.”
