France vows crackdown on latest antisemitic attacks
France’s government on Tuesday vowed a tough response amid the latest antisemitic incidents over the weekend.
The coffins of Simone and Antoine Veil lying under the Panthéon dome, July 1, 2018. Credit: Emmanuel J. Lévy via Wikimedia Commons.
Spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux called on law enforcement to catch the suspects while implying the latest wave of attacks could be attributed to far-left and far-right activists who have penetrated weekly “yellow vest” protests, which have been against French President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
“We’re not talking about the protesters who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Griveaux on France 2 television. “But those who are committing violent acts, openly antisemitic or racist acts, they must be charged and severely punished.”
The latest string of antisemitic attacks includes a tree commemorating a young French Jewish man who was tortured to death in 2006 being cut off, the word “Juden” (German for “Jew”) scribbled on the window of a Paris bagel bakery, and swastikas drawn on Paris mailboxes decorated with a picture of former government minister and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, who died in 2017.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Monday that the number of recorded antisemitic acts soared by 74 percent in 2018.
JNS
