A growing number of cases of harassment and attack against Jews is on the rise throughout the Western world. While pro-Palestinian protests started against Israel in particular, they rapidly devolved as targeting all Jews.
In turn, close to 200,000 people marched in opposition to antisemitism in France over the weekend. NPR says:
More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, marched peacefully on Sunday to protest against rising antisemitism in the wake of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left, conservatives and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron’s party as well as far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended Sunday’s march in the French capital amid tight security. Macron did not attend, but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism.”
France has been at the center of this dynamic in Europe. Home to the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Europe, France has witnessed many hate crimes against Jews. In turn, many French Jews have been leaving to go to Israel. The NY Times continues:
Tensions have been rising in France and particularly in Paris, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, after Hamas’s attack and during Israel’s subsequent military campaign in the Gaza Strip. In the past month, over 1,240 antisemitic acts have been reported in France. The police had made 539 arrests as of Nov. 10.
President Emmanuel Macron condemned “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism” in France in an open letter published in Le Parisien newspaper on Saturday, and said there would be “no tolerance for the intolerable.”
The Jewish community in France is particularly sensitive to the Israel issue. Unlike other countries, the majority of its Jewish community has its roots in North Africa. Their history of being removed from their homes in North Africa following the fall of the French Empire still sighs heavily on the community.
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