Antisemitic acts multiply in France, the government promises to act

PARIS (Reuters) – Violence against Jews and other acts of anti-Semitism have increased in France over the last nine months, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Friday. 39 intensify actions against the culprits.

Quoting new government statistics, Philippe said that anti-Semitism increased by 69% between September and September compared to the same period in 2017, an increase that he believes should worry everyone in France. In the two previous years, the trend was down.

"Not to remain indifferent is to take better care of the victims, acknowledge their complaints and punish more effectively the perpetrators," said Philippe in a message posted on his Facebook account.

Jewish community organizations reported particular hostility in low-income French suburbs with large Muslim populations. France has both the largest Jewish community in Europe with a population of 400,000 and the largest Muslim population of 5.7 million.

In recent years, many high-profile attacks have targeted the Jewish community, including the killing of four Jews in a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

This attack, led by an activist inspired by an Islamic state, led to an increase in Jewish emigration to Israel.

In March, an 85-year-old Jewish woman was stabbed to death and burned in her Paris apartment by two attackers accused of murder motivated by anti-Semitism.

A number of Jewish graves have also been desecrated and antisemitic graffiti scribbled on walls near synagogues or on the doors of Jewish-owned houses and businesses.

"We have seen a huge increase in the number of anti-Semitic messages on the Internet," said Francis Kalifat, president of Crif, an umbrella organization representing French Jews.

"We have also witnessed a development of hatred toward Israel that has resulted in virulent anti-Zionism, which has become, as the President said, a reinvented form of anti-Semitism."

Philippe said the government would appoint special magistrates and prosecutors to tackle the problem and launch awareness programs in public schools.

The government will also act to fight against hatred on social networks, said the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner.

"The feeling of insecurity is real and justified," Mario Stasi, president of the French League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, told BFM. "Some Jews are leaving areas in France to seek refuge elsewhere."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said on Friday that her country has a moral duty to fight the upsurge of anti-Semitism in this country. She was speaking in a synagogue in Berlin on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the pogrom of the "Kristallnacht" against Jews in Nazi Germany.