Huge spike in antisemitism in France - French Interior Minister

Figures include a frightening 80 attempted murders with antisemitic motivations, along with the actual murder of 85-year old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in her Paris apartment last March.

By JEREMY SHARON
Updated: FEBRUARY 13, 2019 16:44
The Star of David is seen on the facade of a synagogue in Paris France, December 10, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/GONZALO FUENTES)
The Star of David is seen on the facade of a synagogue in Paris France, December 10, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/GONZALO FUENTES)
Antisemitic incidents rose a massive 74% in France in 2018 over the 2017 figures, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner reported on Monday night.
The figures include a frightening 80 attempted murders with antisemitic motivations, along with the actual murder of 85-year old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in her Paris apartment in March last year.
According to the French Interior Ministry, after two years of decline in 2016 and 2017, the number of antisemitic incidents spiked to 541 in 2018, compared to 311 in 2017.
Of these 541 incidents, there were 183 physical antisemitic attacks, including the 80 attempted murders and one murder and 102 incidents of attacks on Jewish property, along with 358 threats of an antisemitic nature.
Castaner gave these figures during a visit to the Paris suburb of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, where a tree planted in memory of Ilan Halimi, a French Jew who was tortured and murdered in 2006, was recently chopped down in what appears to be another antisemitic attack.
“Hate has no place in the Republic,” said Castaner at the event. “We are determined to protect all French people, to protect secularism, the freedom not to believe, and to believe, in complete safety. These numbers show that we must not let our guard down. Antisemitic, Islamophobic, anti-Christian, racist, xenophobic – there is no small attack, no small insult. Nothing will be tolerated – every culprit will have to be found and judged.”
President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald S. Lauder described the rise in antisemitic attacks as “alarming and unacceptable,” and called for a national effort to combat antisemitism
“Enough is enough, and we hope that the French Government will not only condemn these atrocious acts, but go after the perpetrators, for the sake not only of the country’s Jewish community, but for the health of French society as a whole,” said Lauder.
“We cannot afford to relive our past, and the only way we will stop this hate is to educate the next generation about the crimes that took place over the last 74 years.”
The release of the antisemitism figures coincides with several recent serious antisemitic incidents.
In recent days, swastikas have been daubed on postboxes in Paris bearing portraits of the late French government minister and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil.
And the word “Juden,” German for Jews, was grafittied on a bagel shop in Paris.
A recent study conducted by CNN found worryingly high levels of antisemitic sentiment and incidents across Europe.
The CNN survey, published in November last year, showed that approximately between a quarter and a third of the EU citizens surveyed think Jews are too influential in political affairs around the world and the media.
A study commissioned by the EU of the European Jewish community, published in December 2018, found some 76% of Jews on the continent had heard or read a comment that Jews have too much power in their country; 59% read comments that called the interests of Jews in their country “different” than those of the rest of the population; and 72% mentioned that Jews bring antisemitism upon themselves.