PARIS, Feb 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Mass rallies are planned in Paris and other
French cities Tuesday to denounce a flare-up of anti-Semitic acts which
culminated in a violent tirade against a prominent writer during “yellow
vest” anti-government protests last weekend.
Political leaders of all stripes called the rallies after a protester was
caught on video calling the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut a “dirty Zionist”
and telling him that “France belongs to us.”
Finkielkraut had initially supported the yellow vest movement, before
criticising the violence carried out against police forces by a fringe of
suspected far-right and far-left demonstrators.
Protesters also launched anti-Semitic abuse at Ingrid Levavasseur, who
tried to lead a yellow vest list for coming European Parliament elections, in
Paris over the weekend.
President Emmanuel Macron called the insults “the absolute negation of who
we are and what makes us a great nation. We will not tolerate it.”
His office said he would not take part in the rallies, though Prime
Minister Edouard Philippe will be among several government officials at a
Paris march starting at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) at Place de la Republique.
The yellow vest protests began last march against high fuel taxes and
rising costs of living blamed on Macron’s policies, which critics say favour
the well-off.
But officials accuse the grass-roots movement of helping unleash a wave of
extremist violence that has fostered anti-Semitic outbursts among some
participants.
– ‘Extremist elements’ –
“This is the response to the national wake-up call we urged last week,”
said Francis Kalifat of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish
organisations.
He was referring to a spate of anti-Jewish vandalism and graffiti
discovered in and around Paris in the days following another Saturday of
yellow vest protests.
Graffiti on the headquarters of French daily Le Monde used anti-Semitic
tropes to refer to Macron’s former job as a Rothschild investment banker.
In another incident, the words “Macron Jews’ Bitch” was written in English
across a garage door in the city centre, and the phrase “Jewish pig” was
sprayed onto a wall in the northern 18th arrondissement.
But the rise in anti-Semitic acts in France predates the yellow vest
movement.
Last year, police recorded a 74 percent surge in reported anti-Jewish
offences, causing alarm in a country that is home to the biggest Jewish
population in Europe.
The government has tried to walk a fine line in condemning the recent
surge in anti-Semitism while not criticising what it calls the protesters’
legitimate complaints.
Several yellow vests have already said they plan to participate in the
marches.
But a recent Ifop poll of “yellow vest” backers found that nearly half
questioned believed in a worldwide “Zionist plot” and other conspiracy
theories.
“The yellow vests aren’t an anti-Semitic movement,” said Jean-Yves Camus
of the Political Radicalisation Observatory in Paris.
“But it’s a leaderless, horizontal movement… and extremist elements have
been able to drown out the voices of its high-profile figures in the media,”
he said.
The marches come the day before Macron is expected to address Jewish
leaders at the Crif’s annual dinner.