French say ‘enough’ as antisemitism surges
AFTER YET another week of antisemitic attacks across France, politicians, trade unionists and ordinary citizens have marched in the country’s capital to oppose it.
Thousands attended Tuesday night’s demonstration at the Place de la République in Paris under the slogan ‘That’s Enough’.
They were joined by figures from across the French political spectrum, including Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and former Presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Similar demonstrations took place in dozens of other cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux and Nantes.
French Interior Ministry figures showed antisemitic incidents rose by 74 per cent in 2018, with a further two prominent cases in the past week alone.
The first was on Saturday, when Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut was confronted by men apparently taking part in the weekly ‘yellow vest’ protesters.
Video footage showed them yelling “dirty Zionist”, “piece of sh*t”, “we are the people” and “France is ours” at the 69-year-old, who was born shortly after his parents fled a wartime concentration camp. Paris prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday that a man had been arrested on suspicion of a “public insult based on origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion”.
The attack on Mr Finkielkraut was followed on Tuesday morning by the dis- covery of a desecrated Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, in the northeastern region of Alsace. Swastikas and German slogans were graffitied on some headstones, while others were smashed off their pedestals.
In all, 96 graves were daubed in blue and yellow paint.
President Emmanuel Macron visited the cemetery the same day and promised to take more action on hate crimes.
“We shall act, we shall pass laws, we shall punish,” Mr Macron told Jewish leaders as he toured the cemetery, looking visibly saddened and concerned, to see the damage for himself. He observed several moments of silence in front of vandalised graves and later visited
France’s Holocaust museum in Paris.
But France 3 television was forced to abandon a live Facebook broadcast from the cemetery because of an onslaught of users writing antisemitic comments.
“Within minutes, the number of vile and illegal comments had gone well beyond our capacity to moderate them,” the broadcaster said. “We refuse to traffic in hatred.”
The call to attend Tuesday night’s rally was first made by Olivier Faure, first secretary of the Socialist Party. It was later endorsed by more the 50 political parties, unions and associations, and parliament suspended its work in order to allow MPs to attend the rally.
Notably, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party did not attend, choosing to hold an event of its own.