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French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announces sharp increase in the number of antisemitic acts this year, ‘We have chosen not to be indifferent’

Yossi Lempkowicz

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe delivers a speech during a ceremony of presentation of the French government's best wishes to the Jewish Community for the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, on October 2, 2017 at the Buffault synagogue in Paris.

Citing Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel who warned of the “danger” of “indifference”, the French Prime Minister assures that “the government has chosen precisely not to be indifferent.”

PARIS—The number of anti-Semitic acts in France has increased by 69% over the first nine months of 2018, said French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe in text published on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

The figure mentioned by Philippe marks a strong increase of antisemitic acts after two years of decline.

“We are very far from having finished with anti-Semitism”, the Prime Minister said.

“Every aggression perpetrated against one of our fellow citizens because he is Jewish sounds like a new breakage of crystal,” Edouard Philippe wrote in the text.says the head of government, referring to the Nazi atrocities perpetrated against Jews in Germany on November 9, 1938.

During Kristallnacht or Night of the Broken Glass, the 1938 Nazi-led pogroms, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned, windows smashed, shops looted, and individual Jews rounded up to be sent to concentration camps. Four hundred people were killed in the pogroms.

Citing Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel who warned of the “danger” of “indifference”, the French Prime Minister assures that “the government has chosen precisely not to be indifferent.”

From mid-November, a national team will be mobilized “permanently” to the Ministry of Education to intervene in schools in support of any teacher confronted with anti-Semitism.

In addition, the government is preparing for next year measures to strengthen actions  against online hate speech.

The Prime Minister’s recent plan against racism and anti-Semitism calls for the experimentation of “a network of investigators and magistrates specifically trained in the fight against hate crime”, which could be extended to the national level, as well as a pre-complaint online device to promote reporting of antisemitic incidents.

Collaborationist Marshall Pétain won’t be honored

In another development, the French government has backed down over  plans to pay tribute to Marshal Philippe Pétain — who collaborated with the Nazis in the deportation of Jews from France during World War II — as part of commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire after he said it was “legitimate” to honor Pétain’s role as a “great soldier” in World War I.
Hours later, the government’s spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Facebook that no tribute would be paid to Pétain in Saturday’s ceremony.
“We had announced that we would honor the marshals of the Great War. Some have deduced that Pétain was one of them; this is not the case. If there was confusion, it was because we were not clear enough on that point,” Griveaux said.
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