Antisemitic incidents are up 1,000 % in France since the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel. Yael Braun-Pivet called for a “collective leap forward”.

The President of the French National Assembly has called for a “collective response” to the rise in anti-Semitism in France.

“I’ve complained 23 times about anti-Semitic threats or letters,” Yael Braun-Pivet,who is Jewish, told France Inter radio. “They send me yellow stars and regret that my family wasn’t totally exterminated in the camps,’’ she said.

She said the antisemitic incidents are up 1,000 % in France since the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, calling for a “collective leap forward”.

“The foundations of our Republic and who we are as French people are at stake,” she added. “This is something that must mobilize us all.”

The figure of 1,000 % is based on data from the French ministry of the Interior and the Jewish Community Protection Service (SPCJ). The results are damning: there were 1,676 anti-Semitic acts in 2023, compared with 436 in 2022 and 589 in 2021.

Between October and December, 1,242 anti-Semitic acts were recorded, i.e. as many as in the previous three years combined.

Anti-Semitic acts in schools

In almost 6 cases out of 10 (57.8%), these acts were attacks on individuals (physical violence, threatening words and gestures,….). 12.7% were reportedly committed in schools, “the majority of which are middle schools”. “We are witnessing a rejuvenation of the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts. Schools are no longer a sanctuary of the Republic”, deplored Crif, the Represnetative Council of Jewish Institutions in France.

“For the first time in a long time, new generations are more porous to anti-Semitic prejudice than previous generations,” declared drif President Yonathan Arfi. He identified “three fuels” for this phenomenon: “hatred of Israel, Islamism and conspiracy theory”.

Crif pointed out that the figures reflect “only part of the reality of the expression of anti-Semitism”, as they only list acts “which have been the subject of a complaint or a report to the police”. ‘’What about all acts for which no complaint has been lodged ?’’

A report published by the World Zionist Organization with the Jewish Agency and the ministry of Diaspora Affairs show a 235% increase in antisemitic incidents worldwide in 2023, compared to 2022, with 43% of monitored events occurring in the USA and 35% in Europe. The number of antisemitic incidents for the period between October and December increased six-fold, compared to the previous nine-month period.