By Agence France-Presse
On Saturday, May 31, France’s Holocaust memorial, along with a restaurant and three Paris synagogues was vandalized with paint in what the Israeli embassy denounced as a “coordinated anti-Semitic attack”.
An investigation has been opened into “damage committed on grounds of religion”, the Paris public prosecutor’s office said. No arrests have been made.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he was “deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community,” in a post on X.
Retailleau had called last week for “visible and dissuasive” security measures at Jewish-linked sites amid concerns over possible anti-Semitic acts during the conflict between Israel and the Hamas-run Gaza territory.
The Israeli embassy in France said it was “horrified by the coordinated anti-Semitic attack”, adding that recent tensions with some French officials were contributing to a “problematic discord”.
“We stand with the Jewish community and have full confidence in the French authorities, who will identify and bring the perpetrators to justice,” the embassy said in a statement.
“At the same time, we cannot ignore the problematic discord seen over the past two weeks among certain leaders and officials. Words matter, and the current discord against the Jewish state is not without consequences, not only for Israel but also for Jewish communities around the world,” it added.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Saturday that he was “dismayed” by the Paris vandalism, noting that his great-grandfather had been a rabbi at one of the synagogues.
“I call on the French authorities to act rapidly and forcefully to bring these people to justice,” Herzog said in a statement.
‘Particularly vulnerable’
The row comes amid growing concern in France over anti-Semitic incidents.
In a separate message seen by AFP on May 30, the interior minister ordered heightened surveillance ahead of the coming Jewish Shavuot holiday.
“Anti-Semitic acts account for more than 60 percent of anti-religious acts, and the Jewish community is particularly vulnerable,” Retailleau said in the message.
The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023.
“There is deep sadness and outrage… at the sight of these images showing vandalized Jewish sites,” said Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF).
Paris authorities plan to lodge a complaint over the paint incident, said the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo.
“I condemn these acts of intimidation in the strongest possible terms. Anti-Semitism has no place in our city or in our Republic,” she said.
Last year, France registered 1,570 anti-Semitic acts, according to interior ministry figures, over three times more than the 436 recorded in 2022. Since 2012 they have fluctuated between 311 and 851 per year.
Several EU nations have reported a spike in “anti-Muslim hatred” and “anti-Semitism” since the start of the Gaza war, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
In May 2024, graffiti of red hands was painted beneath the wall at the memorial in central Paris honoring people who saved Jews from persecution during the 1940-44 Nazi occupation of France.
