French Jewish actor and director Yvan Attal denounced “an orgy of anti-Semitism” in the country’s universities, in the context of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Interview on Jewish radio Radio J about the rise of anti-Semitism in society, Attal declared : “Since October 7, there’s been an orgy of anti-Semitism in colleges and on all sides.’’
He added, ‘’Today, being Jewish is a burden. I can no longer share things with other French people, because I know that in some places they want to cut my head off.”
In January, Crif, the Representative Council of French Jewish institutions reported that the number of anti-Semitic acts recorded in France had jumped to 1,676 in 2023, compared with 436 the previous year, with an explosion since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
Born in Tel Aviv, Yvan Attal is Franco-Israeli. After living in Algeria, his father, a watchmaker, and his mother, a homemaker, decided to leave Israel and settle in France six months after the birth of their son, their only child.
According to Attal, the most virulent anti-Semitism in France “is on the left.”
The blockade of Sciences Po University – a bit similar to what happens in several American universities- by pro-Palestinian demonstrators last Friday April 26 led to an agreement between the school and students to suspend proceedings against its students, and to set up an internal debate. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, denounced “an agitating and dangerous minority”, and attacked the extreme left La France insoumise party, some of whose elected representatives were present in front of the university to support the students.
“I’ve never thought that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was anything other than anti-Semitism. The problems of Israel or the problems of the Jews of France are the same thing: it’s hatred of the Jews,” Attal said.
He added that Israel was obliged to wage war in Gaza: “All those Palestinian civilians are a tragedy, but how else can you wage war? In reality, it’s not Israel’s war to fight, it’s the world’s war to fight”, he asserted.