Anti-Semitism in France did not wait for either Israeli raids on Gaza or Benjamin Netanyahu’s manipulations to resurface – from the killings in the southern French cities of Toulouse and Montauban to the attack on the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris, and from the premeditated murder of Ilan Halimi to the murders of Sarah Halimi and Mireille Knoll. But this reality, confirmed by the chilling statistics of the Interior Ministry, took on a new dimension after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel. That year, the number of anti-Jewish acts rose by 284%. Not since 1945 has the idea of a genuine sense of insecurity among Jews in France seemed so plausible.

The Israeli military response, which resulted in a massive carnage of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, has only heightened tensions and deepened the unease felt by French Jews – caught between disapproval and attachment to Israel, between fear and a sense of isolation. There is no indication that the return of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza will soothe this profound distress or the divisions it has exacerbated. The feeling of not being understood in their experience of events in the Middle East is compounded by the growing difficulty in identifying with a country whose tragic policies have led to a collapse in its image. According to a poll published by The Washington Post on October 6, 61% of Jews polled in the US believe that Israel has committed war crimes against Palestinians, and 39% believe it has committed genocide.

In France, which has the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, anti-Semitism remains largely concentrated among far-right voters, according to the annual survey by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, contradicting the professed philosemitism of the far-right Rassemblement National. However, anti-Semitism is also present and on the rise on the far left and among Muslims, according to this survey and that of the Fondation pour l’innovation politique (Fondapol, a French think tank).

You have 64.45% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.