FRANCE ON BRINK: Thousands take to streets after huge spike in anti-Semitic attacks
FRANCE saw thousands of demonstrators marching in protest against a wave of anti-Semitic attacks across the country.
France: Protestors rally against anti-Semitism in Lyon
Rallies were held after vandals painted swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans on dozens of graves in a Jewish cemetery in the latest sickening attack. President Emmanuel Macron vowed to hunt down the perpetrators after nearly 100 graves were desecrated in the attack on the village graveyard in Quatzenheim, near Strasbourg. Former Presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy joined protesters in Paris, who massed in the capital under the slogan “Enough”.
Protests also took place in Lille, Toulouse and Marseille, with demonstrators lining the streets.
President Emmanuel Macron paid respects at one of the 96 desecrated graves in Quatzenheim,.
Mr Macron said: ”Whoever did this is not worthy of the French republic and will be punished.
“We'll take action, we'll apply the law and we'll punish them.”
In the most recent attack, anti-semitic thugs sprayed a swastika on the graveyard’s gate.
France has the biggest Jewish community in Europe - around 550,000 - a population that has grown by about half since World War Two.
But government statistics released last week showed anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise.
Last year, there were more than 500 anti-Semitic attacks in France, a 74 percent increase from 2017, with the surge drawing a sharp response from French politicians.
Mr Sarkozy said: “Some people are provoking the authority of the state. It needs to be dealt with now and extremely firmly.
“It's a real question of authority. Violence is spreading and it needs to stop now."
The increase in anti-Semitic attacks comes after “yellow vest” protestors were filmed hurling abuse on Saturday at Alain Finkielkraut, a well-known Jewish writer and son of a Holocaust survivor.
Artwork on two Paris post boxes showing the image of Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and former magistrate, was defaced with swastikas, while a bagel shop was sprayed with the word "Juden", German for Jews, in yellow letters.
A tree in a Paris suburb in memory of Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 2006, was cut in two.
The attacks has led to calls for action against what some fear is a new form of anti-Semitism among the far-left and Islamist preachers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message recorded in Hebrew: “"I call on all French and European leaders to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism.
"It is an epidemic that endangers everyone, not just us."
In 2012, a rabbi and three children were killed at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 by an Islamist gunman.
And in 2015 four Jews murdered at a kosher supermarket in Paris were among 17 people killed by Islamist militants.