With a 74% rise in anti-Semitic incidents in 2018, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments are seemingly everywhere in France. Home to Europe's largest Jewish population, the country is now contending with anti-Semitism on the far-right, but also anti-Zionism from the far Left and radical Muslims.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced in February that 541 anti-Semitic incidents took place in the country in 2018, up from 311 in 2017. One of the most publicized and disturbing anti-Semitic attacks of the year was the brutal murder of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old French Jew and Holocaust survivor who was stabbed 11 times and then set on fire in her apartment by two assailants.
In early 2019, two teenagers were arrested after they allegedly fired an air rifle at a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, 96 tombs were desecrated in a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, the word "Juden," which means "Jews" in German, was scrawled across a bagel shop in Paris, and swastikas were drawn on public portrait of former French politician and Auschwitz survivor Simone Veil.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that France is now experiencing a "resurgence of anti-Semitism unseen since World War II."
Arié Bensemhoun, executive director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization European Leadership Network (ELNET) France, has noted how unlike in the past, when Jews were targeted mainly by extremists on the political Right, they now face hatred and discrimination from the far Left as well as radical Muslims in the country.
Bensemhoun believes that the most extreme hatred stems from France's large Muslim population, which is estimated to number between 6 million and 10 million people. In comparison, France's Jewish population numbers some 500,000 people.
"When it comes to the most aggressive anti-Semitism and hatred of the Jews, it's coming from the Muslims," said Bensemhoun. "Not from the extreme Right. It's difficult for some people to admit."
ELNET's goal is to strengthen Europe-Israel ties, by playing the part of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for the European arena, he explained.
Although there has been talk of a new brand of anti-Semitism now veering its head in France, Bensemhoun said there nothing is new about the prejudice or the physical and verbal attacks on Jews in the country. The only difference, he said, is that French Jews are now facing numerous types of anti-Semitism.
"Today, we have to fight against the traditional anti-Semitism from the extreme Right, and also now the one coming from Islamism and the Muslim communities. And then we have also this anti-Zionism coming from the extreme Left," he explained. "So you see the situation is much more complex because from all sides of the society you will find people that have a problem with the system, that would like to defeat the system. When you want to defeat the system, [they think,] your first target should be the Jews."
According to Bensemhoun, "After World War II, it was frowned upon to be against Jews because of the suffering they experienced at the hands of the Nazis. However, people are now forgetting about those taboos, and again expressing hatred towards the Jewish community and Israel, and the latter's so-called persecution and 'colonization' of the Palestinians. The anti-Semitism currently taking over in France is nothing "new," but a re-emergence of these longstanding anti-Semitic tropes and false stereotypes involving Jews, money and their desire to control the world."
Bensemhoun knows people who were verbally and physically attacked for being Jewish. In a previous post as president of the Jewish community in Toulouse, he met with thousands of people who had encountered anti-Semitism.
'Anti-Semitism is a fact; we live with it'
Julie Hazan is the resource development director of ELNET New York. Born and raised in Marseille, she says she has friends in France who are terrified to send their children to Jewish schools out of fears they will be targeted.
"But they still do it," said Hazan, whose entire family still lives in Marseille, home to the second-largest Jewish population in France outside of Paris. "They are resilient. They are used to it. They know they can always go to Israel if they have to, but otherwise, they are going to go on with their lives. They just live through it."
She said, "Anti-Semitism is there [in France]; it's a fact, but we live with it. For us it's ancient."
Hazan points to an uptick in anti-Semitism after the Second Intifada. Anti-Semitic attacks in Europe have generally coincided with increased tensions in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians.
Hazan points to France's growing Muslim population and its resistance to integrate in society. She says she is not optimistic when it comes to the possibility of things turning around in her country.
"In France, "she says," to be honest, I think it's too late."
'It's time to see the reality and fight it'
The anti-establishment "yellow-vest" protests against rising fuel prices and the cost of living that began in November 2018 have become another outlet for anti-Jewish aggression in the country. Protesters have been known to use anti-Semitic slurs at the protests and even harass Jewish passersby.
But the country appears to have reached a tipping point in February, when vandals desecrated 96 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in the country's Alsace region. The vandalism prompted thousands of people to rally in Paris and across the country under the slogan "That's Enough."
Macron responded to the incident by announcing he would crack down on the "scourge" of anti-Semitism. At a dinner attended by leaders of the Jewish community in Paris, Macron said France would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism, adding that "anti-Zionism is one of the modern forms of anti-Semitism."
Macron said increasing levels of anti-Semitism across the European continent have garnered "too much indignation, too many words [and] not enough results." And he vowed to fight the phenomenon.
Bensemhoun has also called for more action from the French government, saying, "Now is the time to act. … The [government] understands that they should do more, and it's clear that we are in a critical time, but also it's a time of opportunities because things are moving [forward]."
He added, "We are coming from a time of denial, and it's time to see the reality and fight it. I think we will be powerful because of this raised awareness that we have now in the country, which is very important."
Bensemhoun said education and stricter laws on anti-Semitism were two ways in which the government could combat anti-Semitism in the country. He said policymakers and intellectuals should be mobilized to prevent further acts of hatred and to punish those who incite racist behavior.
But as Bensemhoun noted, anti-Semitism in France isn't just a Jewish problem. "It's the problem of the whole country," he said. "We should rise and fight this problem with all of society because most of the people in this country and in Europe are with us."
