Netanyahu condemns ‘wave of antisemitism’ sweeping France during protests

Benjamin Netanyahu has “strongly condemned” the vandalism of a Paris Holocaust memorial and the antisemitic chanting during football matches as part of nationwide protests across France last week.

According to Radio Shalom, Jewish businesses were also ransacked in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, dubbed ‘Little Jerusalem’ owing to its large Jewish population.

The violence prompted the Israeli prime minister to use his Sunday cabinet meeting to slam the “wave of antisemitism sweeping France”, adding that Israel was monitoring the situation.

Thousands of French protesters have been arrested after communities reacted angrily to the police killing of an unarmed 17-year-old boy of Algerian descent in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday. The shooting was filmed and posted online.

In the ensuing mayhem, vandals daubed ‘police scum’ across the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation in Nanterre, which commemorates Holocaust victims and Jewish members of the French Resistance.

In a tweet, the European Jewish Congress said it was “truly horrifying to witness [the memorial] being vandalised… This shameful act of disrespect for the memory of Holocaust victims must be unequivocally condemned and those responsible held accountable”.

Antisemitic violence flared in France in 2014, as war was waged between Israel and Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. In 2015, a terrorist attacked a kosher supermarket in Paris, killing four and holding 15 hostages.

In 2019, after a Jewish cemetery was desecrated, thousands marched through the streets of Paris, shouting: “Enough is enough!”

This week, the Wiesenthal Centre said: “Since the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket terrorist attacks in 2015, the quotient of Jew-hatred in demonstrations across France has been sizeable, from the Yellow Jackets rallies to the anti-mask/anti-vaccine protests.”

It called on French president Emanuel Macron to “place the military on the steps of most Jewish institutions, especially in and around Paris,” and equip all Jewish cemeteries and memorials with CCTV and an alarm linked to the police.

Speaking to the Times of Israel, the Marseille leader of CRIF, an umbrella French Jewish group, said: “There are no special security directives for the city’s Jews, but it’s a bad idea to go walking around at night for anyone now.”