A top contestant in France’s annual beauty pageant faced a tsunami of anti-Semitic abuse after revealing her father is Israeli, in an incident that sparked an outcry from French politicians and Jewish groups.
After coming in as the first runner-up in Saturday night’s contest, Israeli April Benayoum was targeted with a slew of virulent anti-Semitic comments on Twitter, including being told “Hitler forgot to exterminate you.”
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted: “I am deeply shocked by the rain of anti-Semitic insults against Miss Provence. We must not let anything go. Shame on their authors.” He added that police were “mobilized” to find those responsible.
Citizenship Minister Marlene Schiappa said the pageant was not an “anti-Semitic contest” and called on prosecutors to investigate the tweets.
The Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, described the tweets as “despicable” and added, “All my support to April, magnificent first runner-up last night.”
The Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (Crif), the umbrella organization of France’s Jewish community, called the anti-Semitic hate speech “vile and unacceptable!”
“All occasions appear to be good for spreading hatred of Jews and Israel,” the group added sardonically.
The Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme (Licra) said attackers should face legal consequences for turning Twitter “into an anti-Semitic cesspool.”
France, which has the largest Muslim population in western Europe, saw a 74 percent increase in violent acts motivated by antisemitism in 2019.
Follow @danandeborah on Twitter