“Agnès Buzyn is accused of poisoning water wells and knowingly misleading the French public concerning Coronavirus. She appears alongside the yellow star marked ‘Jude’ (‘Jew’), imposed on the Jewish population by the Nazis.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has denounced an online antisemitic attack against the former Health Minister in France, Agnès Buzyn,  who is  accused – in the language of the medieval blood libel – of ‘’poisoning water wells and knowingly misleading the French public concerning Coronavirus.’’

In a Twitter message, Buzyn, who is Jewsih and a professional haematologist, she appears alongside the yellow star marked ‘Jude’ (‘Jew’), imposed on the Jewish population by the Nazis.

Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relatioins of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, wrote a letter to French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner in which he expressed his disgust at the online antisemitic attack and asked him to ‘’take strong measures against those who tarnish French medicine with the brush of hate.‘’

The letter noted: “This is especially outrageous in view of her father’s story, Elie Buzyn, a Polish physician, who survived the Buchenwald camp, reached Israel and moved to France. Her grandparents perished during the Holocaust.”

The Centre added: “Dr. Buzyn was married to the son of French survivor and late politician, Simone Veil. It is ironic that both Agnès Buzyn’s electoral posters across Paris, as well as those in memory of Simone Veil were covered with antisemitic graffiti”… continuing, “she then married Yves Levy, immunologist and CEO of INSERM, the French Institute for Health and Medical Research.”

“Mr. Minister, we urge you to investigate and take the strongest measures against those who tarnish the good name of French medicine with the brush of hate,” concluded Samuels.

The letter was also shared with Frederic Potier, Director of DILCRAH, the French Interministerial Delegation Fighting Against Racism, Antisemitism and Hate.

Agnès Buzyn was appointed Minister of Solidarity and Health in under President Emmanuel Macron in 2017.

She resigned last month in order to run in the Paris mayor’s election and was succeeded by Olivier Véran.