French far-right hopeful Marine Le Pen hit out at "Islamic fundamentalism" on Israeli radio Wednesday after commentators initially blamed European anti-Semitism for deadly shootings that killed seven people, four at a Jewish school.
Self-declared al-Qaeda militant Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, was under police siege in the southwestern city of Toulouse after the triple shootings that sparked a wave of soul-searching in France about attitudes towards immigrant communities.
"The identification of the killer only confirms what I've been speaking out against for years -- there's growth of Islamic fundamentalism in our country that the powers-that-be have underestimated," National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen told Tel Aviv private radio 90 FM in a live interview.
"Whole neighbourhoods of the suburbs (of our big cities) have fallen into the clutches of the fundamentalists, weapons are all over the place and foreign funding is pouring in," she said, speaking in French on the Israeli station.
Israeli commentators had initially pointed the finger of blame for the shootings, that also saw three French paratroopers killed, at mounting anti-Semitism and broader far-right extremism in Europe.
Writing in the Israeli daily Maariv on Tuesday, commentator Ben-Dror Yemini warned of growing anti-Semitism in France.
"The problem isn't radical Islam. We can live with that snake and occasionally cut off its head," he said.
"The problem is the support that this hatred has. There's a strong convergence, particularly in France, between the extreme-right, the extreme-left and global jihad on hatred of Israel and the Jews."
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