President Macron tells Jewish leaders France will adopt IHRA definition
He said France will recognise anti-zionism as a form of antisemitism and added that parliament would vote on a new law to combat online abuse.
French President Emmanuel Macron has told Jewish leaders the country will adopt the IHRA definition as part of a crackdown on antisemitism.
He announced that France would recognise anti-zionism as a form of antisemitism and added that parliament would vote on a new law to combat online abuse.
“For the first time in many years, antisemitism is killing people again in France,” Macron told guests on Wednesday at the annual dinner of the CRIF umbrella of French Jewish groups.
He added that French authorities “did not know how to react effectively,” calling this a “failure.”
Earlier this month, French authorities reported a 74 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in 2018 over the previous year.
Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the decision on the IHRA definition in a conversation Wednesday.
Parliamentarians in France have resisted the definition, which was adopted last year by the European Parliament and several European Union member states.
The move was announced one day after thousands of demonstrators, including two former French presidents, gathered in cities across France to condemn antisemitism.
The rallies followed several incidents of antisemitism in France, including the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in the Strasbourg area.
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