Protesters rally against anti-Semitism
PARIS — French residents and public officials from across the political spectrum geared up Tuesday for nationwide rallies against anti-Semitism following a series of anti-Semitic acts, including the swastikas painted on about 80 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery overnight.
Just hours ahead of the events in Paris and other cities, French President Emmanuel Macron headed to the cemetery in Quatzenheim, a small Alsace town, and said he felt shame at the sight of the defaced markers.
“This looks like absurd stupidity,” the French leader said, looking visibly sad and concerned.
Macron observed several moments of silence in front of the vandalized graves while local Jewish community representatives stood by.
“We will take action,” he promised.
Later Tuesday, former French Presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy joined thousands of protesters and government officials on Paris streets.
The upsurge in antiSemitism in France, home to the world’s largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, surged last weekend when a torrent of hate speech was directed at prominent philosopher Alain Finkielkraut during a march of yellow vest antigovernment protesters.
The assault came days after the French government reported a big rise in anti-Semitism last year: 541 registered incidents, up 74 percent from 311 in 2017.
In addition to the marches, Macron joined National Assembly President Richard Ferrand and the head of Senate, Gerard Larcher, to hold a moment of silence at the Shoah memorial in Paris.
“Every time a French person, because he or she is Jewish, is insulted, threatened — or worse, injured or killed — the whole Republic” is attacked, Macron said at a press conference in Paris.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe later led government officials at the main rally at Paris’s famed Republic Square.
“Anti-Semitism is deeply rooted in French society. We would like to think otherwise, but it is a fact,” Philippe told L’Express magazine. “We must be totally determined, I would say almost enraged, in our will to fight, with a clear awareness that this fight is an old one and will last a long time.”
According to sociologist Danny Trom, author of the book “France Without Jews,” thousands of Jewish people leave France every year because the rise of antiSemitism.