Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - French Jewish community representatives said Tuesday they hoped their government would tell visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad that the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric he regularly employs is not the way to gain world respectability.
Critics say that Syria, which is trying to gain a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, has an abominable human rights record. Its state-run media regularly employs anti-Semitic sentiment, and Syria is accused of harboring Nazi war criminals.
An estimated eight thousand French Jews and human rights activists earlier protested the Syrian leader's arrival in Paris, on his first official visit since taking office as president last year.
They were angry because of the "horrible things" Assad said about the Jews during the recent visit of Pope John Paul II to Syria, said Idith Lenczer, spokesperson for the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, which organized the rally.
It was not honorable for France, a country which opposes discrimination and racism and honors human rights, to receive Assad as though he were the head of a democratic state, she said by telephone Tuesday.
Most French political parties were represented at the rally, as were representatives of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Some protestors burned a Syrian flag while others held up signs that said "Heil Assad."
Other demonstrations were held in numerous cities with large Jewish populations throughout France.
The 35-year-old Syrian last month said in front of the Pope that the Israelis had "tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad."
Leaders of the Jewish community in France approached President Jacques Chirac several weeks ago and asked him to postpone the visit. But he declined, saying it was important for him to meet with Assad, Lenczner said.
The visit having gone ahead, the Jewish community now hopes that French leaders will impress upon Assad that he will not gain international respectability through such rhetoric.
It hoped the French government would tell Assad that this is not the way to peace, Lenczner said.
Assad kicked off his trip to France by saying during a state dinner with Chirac that the Mideast peace process was "being aborted."
"Its principles and foundations are in a state of collapse, because of policies adopted by the Israeli government."
Assad accused Israel of exchanging the principle of land for peace for the principle of "peace imposed by force." Israel was not "ripe" for peace, he added.
Amid a growing clamor in Lebanon that Syrian troops should be withdrawn from the country, Assad began redeploying thousands of troops from Beirut two weeks ago. But most observers expressed their doubts as to whether it was a genuine move.
Syria has occupied Lebanon and dominated the government since the 1980s.
Since Israel withdrew its forces from a narrow buffer zone in southern Lebanon a year ago, pressure has mounted on Syria to follow suit.
Experts said the move was likely aimed at garnering international goodwill but does not alter the fact that Damascus still controls Beirut.
Assad's father, the late President Hafez Assad, never recognized Lebanon's independence and considered the tiny state - as well as Israel - to be part of "greater Syria."\tab