The number of antisemitic crimes in France has not risen at such an unprecedented rate in decades. Perpetrators caught red-handed say Russia is behind it.
The number of antisemitic incidents in France has risen to 1,040, and 486 people have been arrested since the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, antisemitic acts have exploded. Of the 486 people arrested, 102 are foreigners, he added. In 2022, altogether, 436 antisemitic acts were recorded by the authorities.
Laurent Nunez, police prefect in Paris, said on Sunday that 257 antisemitic acts had been committed in the capital region since October 7, and 90 people had been arrested in the area. Laurent claims there is no typical profile of the perpetrators; some of them are young children who say very serious things, but others are defenders of the Palestinian cause.
As for the Stars of David painted on the walls of Parisian houses last week, the head of the police said it was atypical of other antisemitic acts, a concerted action by a group of people who were not involved in the attacks. According to Laurent, some 250 Stars of David have been painted on various houses, sometimes where Jewish communities live, sometimes not.
On October 27, a Moldovan couple were arrested after they were caught red-handed painting a blue Star of David on the wall of a house in Paris. The couple claimed they had committed the crime on behalf of a man living in Russia.
Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party, called on all political forces to join a rally against antisemitism. „I call on all political forces to declare that in France the slightest antisemitic act or the slightest antisemitic statement is unacceptable and that French Jews cannot be held responsible for acts committed by Jews in other parts of the world,” the opposition politician said on the Jewish community radio station Radio J on Sunday.
The Socialists plan to hold a rally against antisemitism in Paris’ République Square in the coming days. In Paris on Saturday, police said 19,000 people marched to demand a ceasefire in the Middle East conflict, with some banners reading „Stop the cycle of violence.” It was the first major demonstration in Paris since the Hamas attack on October 7, organised by the radical trade union CGT, and was authorised by the authorities. On Sunday, thousands of people in the second largest French city, Marseille, in the south, demanded a ceasefire in Gaza.
France is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, estimated at between five and six hundred thousand, and the largest Muslim community in Europe, between five and six million.
Original article: Magyar Nemzet
Photo credit: AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool
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