Paris – Almost 200,000 people demonstrated yesterday against anti-Semitism in France, where hostile acts towards Jews have skyrocketed in the last month due to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
“I am Jewish and French. “Is it still possible?” read a poster from a woman in the central Place des Invalides in Paris, from where she started the march in the capital.
With each escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, France, where millions of Muslims also live, becomes an echo chamber of tension. In addition, forty French people were killed in the Hamas attack, and some remained hostages.
To “send a clear message that France does not accept anti-Semitism”, the president of the National Assembly (lower house), Yaël Braun-Pivet, and her counterpart in the Senate (upper house), Gérard Larcher, called for the “great march ”.
Macron
“A France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not France,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in a letter, who refused to participate in a march that was not without controversy, defending his role in “building the unity of the country.”
The Jewish community in Europe remains marked by the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed Thursday to protect Jews and “never again” tolerate anti-Semitism.
However, the march organized by Braun-Pivet and Larcher raised controversy due to the presence of the far-right National Rally party (RN), heir to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front (FN), famous for its anti-Semitic comments.
“We are exactly where we need to be…” said his daughter and current RN leader, Marine Le Pen, who days ago claimed to have “separated” herself from her father’s past and reiterated her “support” for the French “confession.” bean”.
Members of the left-wing Jewish group Golem tried to prevent the far-right from participating in the Paris demonstration, before the police intervened.
For far-right and anti-Semitism specialist Nonna Mayer, Marine Le Pen, who launched a strategy in 2011 to appear less extremist, broke with her father’s “anti-Semitism”, but not the followers of her training.
AFP Agency
Source: Ambito
