The number of recorded antisemitic incidents in France soared by a staggering 192 per cent during the first half of this year, according to government figures.
The National Directorate of Territorial Intelligence (DNRT) of the French Interior Ministry revealed this week that 887 “antisemitic acts” were committed in the first six months of the year, noting that the trend of rising antisemitism in the country following the October 7th terror attacks on Israel “seems to be long-term”.
This represented an increase of 192 per cent compared to the same period of 2023, Le Figaro reported.
The increase means that antisemitic acts represent 67 per cent of all religiously motivated incidents, despite the Jewish population only accounting for less than one per cent of the country. Previously, anti-Christian acts were the most recorded in France.
According to the DNRT, antisemitic incidents appear to be strongly correlated to the news cycle in the Middle East. For example, in the week after Israel bombed Rafah, antisemitic acts in France shot up to 187 compared to 54 the week before. The “controversies… unquestionably played a role as a catalyst,” in sparking attacks the interior ministry directorate said.
The DNRT also revealed that there was a 165 per cent increase in physically violent antisemitic attacks, with 53 recorded in the first half of the year compared to 20 during the same time in 2023.
Speaking at a commemoration in Paris for the October 7th attacks on Israel, President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif) Yonathan Arfi said: “The mourning had not yet begun when anti-Semitism was spreading everywhere”.
Arfi separately said in an interview with Le Monde: “If anti-Semitism in France flares up when there is a spark in the Middle East, I fear, on the other hand, that it will not calm down, even if the conflict were to calm down… for the first time since the Second World War, antisemitism is now fueled at all levels of society.”
The Crif president said that far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon was “primarily responsible” for the outbreak of antisemitism in France, accusing the La France Insoumise (LFI) leader of giving “political backing to the antisemitism in our country”.
The former leftist presidential candidate, often compared to Bernie Sanders in the United States or Jeremy Corbyn in Britain, has previously come under fire for appearing to try to downplay the increase in antisemitism in France, claiming in June that “contrary to what official propaganda says, anti-Semitism remains residual in France.”
The parents of a 12-year-old Jewish girl who was gang raped in Courbevoie earlier this year after her acquaintances discovered that she was a “dirty Jew”, slammed Mélenchon for his remarks.
“We don’t live in a residual antisemitism but heavy, visible, palpable anti-Semitism, explains the mother. Our daughter lived it in her flesh at school before the unthinkable on June 15,” they said.
Meanwhile, the DNRT revealed that there have been over 6,000 applications from French Jews to emigrate to Israel following the October 7th attacks.