The Oise prefecture reported on Wednesday, November 15, that ten Jewish steles had been “discovered defaced” the same day, in the German cemetery in the commune of Moulin-sous-Touvent.
“The national gendarmerie immediately launched an investigation. The Compiègne public prosecutor’s office is seized of the facts”, she specifies in a press release published in particular on the race, ethnicity, nation, religion,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to the prefecture, the targeted cemetery contains 1,903 Christian and Jewish graves of German soldiers who fought during the First World War. The prefect of Oise, Catherine Séguin, condemns “abject acts” and insists in the press release the “total mobilization of the State to fight tirelessly against anti-Semitism”.
These degradations take place in the midst of an explosion of anti-Semitic acts in France. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on Tuesday November 14 on Europe 1 that “1,518 anti-Semitic acts or remarks” had been recorded since October 7, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel.
For comparison, 436 acts of this nature were counted for the whole of 2022, and 974 in 2004, a record year in this area in the 21st century. Tags, posters and banners constitute “50%” of the facts recorded; threats and insults, “22%”; the apology for terrorism, “10%”; property crimes, “8%”; assault and battery, “2%.” These acts resulted in 571 arrests.