Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Monday, May 6, that “366 anti-Semitic incidents” had been recorded in France in the first quarter of 2024, “an increase of 300% compared to the first three months of 2023.”
“No one can deny this anti-Semitic surge. No one can deny the fact that it is estimated that French Jews represent 1% of the French population, but that more than 60% of anti-religious acts are anti-Semitic acts,” declared the head of government in a speech given in the evening on the occasion of the annual dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), in Paris. Faced with this increase, “not an act should go unpunished, not an anti-Semite should have peace of mind,” said Mr. Attal, promising to “show exemplary firmness.”
Deploring that it is not possible to know precisely the number of acts committed due to religion and the convictions that these have given to their perpetrators, he announced that he had asked the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, “to find the means to implement a census of these cases and these convictions”.
Gabriel Attal accuses Mélenchon of “stirring up hatred”
“Islamism is a serious danger for our Republic and one of the most dangerous, most destructive faces of anti-Semitism,” he also affirmed, promising to “tackle Islamism and separatism head-on.” “.
The head of government also attacked La France insoumise and its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whom he accused of “stirring up hatred as well as the most unworthy innuendoes”. “I have often felt ashamed lately (…). Shame when listening to certain elected officials from La France insoumise talk about a resistance movement” about Hamas, he said. But he also criticized the National Rally, saying: “Let us not be fooled by the absolute cynicism of those who say they support the Jewish French out of an anti-Muslim reflex. »
The government launched a “conference to combat anti-Semitism” on Monday, the outbreak of which alarms the Jewish community. The Minister Delegate in charge of the fight against discrimination, Aurore Bergé, brought together in Paris in the morning the heads of several associations (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, SOS-Racism, etc.) and representatives of the six main religions to floor on the subject.
Since October 7, 2023 – the date of the Hamas attack on Israel – “anti-Semitic acts have exploded,” said the minister, deploring that “ordinary hatred, fueled by the extremes, is pouring out on social networks, but also in our streets, in our schools, in our universities.” For Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, “these meetings respond to an imperative, that public power should set civil society in motion.”
The number of anti-Semitic acts recorded in France almost quadrupled in 2023, with 1,676 recorded, compared to 436 in 2022, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
According to an IFOP survey for the French branch of the American Jewish Committee published Sunday in Le Parisien, 94% of French people of Jewish faith believe that anti-Semitism has increased over the past ten years (21 points compared to 2022). This same survey shows that 35% of 18-24 year olds feel it is normal to attack Jews because of their support for Israel.
