Two prominent Jewish politicians in France have been placed under police protection following death threats directed at them in the wake of the Israeli war with Hamas as French authorities claim there have been over a hundred antisemitic incidents this week.
Speaker of the French National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet received police protection at her home on Wednesday, October 11th, following death threats that included a picture of teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in the suburbs of Paris by a Chechen Islamic terrorist in October of 2020.
According to a report from broadcaster CNews, Braun-Pivet already has police who accompany her but the seriousness of the death threats led to police increasing her security.
The threats come after Braun-Pivet paid tribute to the civilians massacred by Hamas with a minute of silence in the French National Assembly and also cancelled a visit by Maryam Abu Daqqa, an activist of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group considered to be a terror organisation by the European Union.
Braun-Pivet released a statement on her decision saying, “The presence of Ms. Abu Daqqa would be an unspeakable provocation to all victims of anti-Semitism around the world.”
Meyer Habib, a member of the French parliament for French living abroad, was also given police protection this week over growing concerns of antisemitic violence.
Habib has been outspoken about the ongoing conflict in Israel, stating on Friday that “Hamas is Hitler.”
“As I speak to you, there are children, women, Holocaust survivors, babies who are without their mothers, in the Hamas tunnels,” he said, adding, “These people are Nazis. Israel no longer has a choice. Israel wants to clean up the terrorists who are in the tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip. To do that, we have to evacuate civilians.”
He stated:
When Berlin was bombed in 1944, there were 40,000 dead. In Dresden, 50,000 dead. People didn’t ask themselves too many questions. Israel wants to avoid civilian deaths. The Palestinians are not responsible for this. Hamas is responsible, and it has committed barbaric acts worse than the Nazis. The Nazis left mothers with their children to kill them. There, the mothers were separated from the children. The IDF has no choice but to eliminate the head of the snake, and is therefore forced to ask civilians to evacuate. (…) In 1944, 10,000 Jews were dying every day and the world fell silent. Today, if the Jews have to die, they will die with weapons in their hands.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has claimed that there have been more than a hundred antisemitic acts since Hamas began their massacre of civilians on Saturday.
“Since Saturday and the terrorist massacres in Israel, there have been over a hundred antisemitic acts, mainly tags and swastikas,” Darmanin said, “But also insults… and people arrested with a knife at the entrance of a school or synagogue … and a drone flying over a Jewish place of worship.”
Darmanin also commented on banning demonstrations in support of Hamas saying, “The Palestinian cause is an absolutely respectable one, France has always considered that we need two states, an Israeli one and a Palestinian one … but if it is a demonstration of support for Hamas … it’s no.”
President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation on Thursday amid the surge of antisemitic acts and called on the French people to remain united and not to give in to hatred.
He also promised to free French hostages kidnapped by Hamas saying, “I speak to the families tonight and I want to tell them that France is doing everything in its power, with the Israeli authorities and our partners, in order to bring them home safely because France never abandons its children.”
