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The Reporter: French lawyer Klarsfeld becomes Israeli and heads to U.S. campuses
Nicholas Simon
High-profile French lawyer and pro-Israel activist Arno Klarsfeld has taken Israeli citizenship and is about to embark on a tour of U.S. college campuses to try and convince American students of the justice of Israel�s cause. �The time had come for me to become a part of the collective experience of the Jewish people,� Klarsfeld, 36, told The Report on his return to France from Jerusalem, where he was granted Israeli identity papers, although he will continue to reside in Paris.The fiery, flamboyant Arno, son of Nazi-hunters Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, took Israeli nationality even though Interior Ministry officials refused to registerhim as a Jew since his mother, detained in the past in Syria, South America and her native Germany for pro-Jewish activities, is a nonpracticing Lutheran. �They wanted to register me as a Protestant but I refused. I am a member of the Jewish people,� said Klarsfeld, who once ended up black-and-blue after single handedly jumping on stage at a rally of Jean-Marie Le Pen�s extreme-rightist National Front party to denounce it as anti-Semitic. (Klarsfeld gained fame as a lawyer for Holocaust victims in the trials of French collaborationists Maurice Papon and Paul Touvier and also
campaigned for the creation of the international courts now trying the perpetrators of genocide-like massacres in Rwanda and Kosovo.)
He said officials in Jerusalem finally left blank the part of his ID card that asks for �nationality� but actually records the holder�s religion. �They also wanted me to change my first name to �David� but I said no. Arno was the name of my paternal grandfather killed at Auschwitz and that�s good enough for me.�Klarsfeld said he will put his law practice on hold for about two months from October to embark on his tour of U.S. campuses, where Israel�s cause has taken a beating since the start of the intifada two years ago. �Many students don�t
know the facts. I may not be able to explain any better than anyone else but I fervently believe what I say: The existence of the State of Israel is at stake, and we must make historical facts and Israel�s right to exist very clear,� he said.Klarsfeld said his tour was not organized by the Israeli government, though he was vague about who was
behind it (�We�ll work it out with Jewish student groups�). But Klarsfeld � who is undeniably charismatic, and whose good looks and friendships with top models garner frequent appearances in local gossip magazines � could prove an attractive draw. �I just get along with people and like sports; I participate in triathlons,� he says of that gossip-column interest. Indeed, he adds, �I made the decision to become Israeli while running the Jerusalem marathon in April � I finished way before (Knesset Speaker) Avraham
Burg and (Jerusalem mayor) Ehud Olmert!�
Reporter
Israel gives intelligence briefings to alleged smugglers of Mig engines to Saddam
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