French Prime Minister Jean Castex has called for a “general mobilization of the whole society” to fight against anti-Semitism, promising to “continue the fight”, “without respite”, in an address to the Paris annual dinner of Crif, the representative politicval body of France Jewish community on Thursday.
The 36th edition of this “republican” gathering – canceled the last two years because of Covid – took place without the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, who was called to an extarordinary summit of EU leaders in Brussels to deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His wife Brigitte Macron attended the dinner.
It was therefore the Prime Minister who delivered the address of the Head of State to politicians, ambassadors, religious, trade unionists, artists, media personalities, who gathered at the Carrousel du Louvre. A total of thousand people attended the dinner which took place ahead of the April presiudential election.
In his speech, Castex assured the audience that the “fight against anti-Semitism” is at once “international”, “European” and “of course national”. “In the months and years to come, you can count on me to continue the fight. Relentlessly,” he promised.
“We will only come to the end of the foul beast by the general mobilization of the whole society,” he said on behalf of President Macron.
Castex “drew up an assessment of the action taken” over the past five years, assuring that he saw “results” and “progress”.
Among others, the adoption by Parliament of the definition of anti-Semitism developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a text without binding value but supposed to help better train public officials.
“Our security forces, our magistrates learn in their schools to better detect these new faces (…). Our teachers are made aware of this during their training”, “police officers and gendarmes receive specific training”, said Jean Castex.
“The results, little by little, are appearing: in the police stations and brigades concerned, the victims are better taken care of, the listening is more attentive. (…) The sentences handed down are harsher and fairer,” he continued.
“Barrage to the extremes” –
French authorities are pleased that “anti-Semitic acts (are) in 2021 down 14% compared to the year 2019, the last year of reference since without containment.”
An interpretation that Crif contests: it does not see why the year 2020 should not be taken into account and is alarmed by a 74% increase in anti-Semitic acts since last year.
The government also assured that it would continue the fight against “the scourge of digital anti-Semitism” and “attack” the “conspiracy that thrives” on social networks. He promised to continue the fight against “Islamist separatism”, or against anti-religious acts.
In institutions of higher education, “marked by an inflation of anti-Semitic and racist acts”, the government proposes to extend existing measures in national education: the “national reaction team” that can be deployed in case of anti-Semitic incident to “support teachers”, and training of “referents”.
Castex also announced that Macron will go “to Toulouse on March 20, with the Israeli president, to keep alive the memory of the victims” of terrorist Mohammed Merah in March 2012, three children and a teacher from the Jewish school Ozar Atorah.
Seven weeks before the presidential election, the dinner was an opportunity for its president, Francis Kalifat, to launch an appeal “to block all candidates of the far left and far right.’’ The candidates from both political sides were not invited ton the dinner.
Kalifat had expressed his “unease” about the fight against anti-Semitism, judging that “the approach” of various governments through global plans to fight “racism and anti-Semitism” does not “work”. He called instead or a “specific and targeted strategy”.