France has seen an exponential rise in antisemitic incidents since the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas on Jewish civilians took place a month ago in Israel, the AFP reports.
The figures were announced on Sunday by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
“The number of anti-Semitic acts has exploded,” he told France 2 television, adding that 486 people have been arrested for such offenses, including 102 foreigners.
France’s Jewish population is the largest in Europe and the third-biggest in the world, after Israel and the United States. The country has an estimated Jewish community of over 500,000.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez also said Sunday that there had been 257 anti-Semitic acts in the Paris region alone, with 90 arrests.
He added that the perpetrators did not have a common profile but rather ranged from “young kids who say very serious things” to people involved in the pro-Palestinian cause who had gone too far.
In Paris, prosecutors said the daubing of dozens of Stars of David on buildings around the city and its suburbs last week is already under investigation. The Union of Jewish Students of France said they were designed to mirror the way Jews were forced to wear the stars by the Nazi regime.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure called on Sunday for all political forces to mobilize against antisemitism.
In comments to Radio J, he suggested a demonstration in the next few days at Place de la Republique, a regular site for rallies in central Paris.
But his initiative immediately came under fire from politicians on the Left for his failure to maintain the cordon sanitaire against the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen and prohibit it from taking part.
In the central city of Lyon, prosecutors said they suspected that antisemitism may have been behind an attack this weekend on a young Jewish woman, who was stabbed in her home.
Police said they are treating the attack as attempted murder, but added that the woman’s life was not in danger and no arrest had been made.
Additionally, the mayor in the eastern city of Besançon on Sunday denounced what she described as a fresh wave of antisemitic graffiti there after a first set appeared on October 31st.
“We are witnessing an escalation of violence in the content of messages,” said Anne Vignot in a statement, noting that such acts could be prosecuted.
In Denmark, too, the Minister of Justice stated that the threat against Jews is on the rise.
In Sweden, anti-Israel protesters burned an Israeli flag while chanting “bomb Israel” outside of the synagogue in the city of Malmö.
