Sharp rise of anti-Semitic acts in France

In France, a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents was recorded in the first half of 2009, in the wake of the Gaza war. The Protection Service for the Jewish Community (SCPJ) said that 631 incidents had been registered in the first half of 2009, compared with 474 for the whole of 2008. In January alone – the month when Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza – 360 anti-Semitic acts occurred across France.

From this year's numbers, 113 were violent attacks and 518 were threats of violence. The data is based on records from the French Interior Ministry and the SCPJ's own figures. "The pro-Palestinian movement of January 2009 paved the way for numerous anti-Semitic attacks," the SCPJ said in a statement. "This trend continued over the following months.”

Jacques Attali, a leading French Jewish intellectual and former adviser to the late French president François Mitterrand, had sparked controversy earlier this week when he told an Israeli newspaper there was no problem of anti-Semitism in France. "Zero! None whatsoever. It's a lie. It's a pure lie. Not true. There are some well-known anti-Semites, but it is not a problem at the national level,” Attali told the Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’. Richard Prasquier, the president of the umbrella organization CRIF, responded to Attali's comments by saying "there is a climate of hatred against Jews that manifests itself through insults and often physical attacks."