In France, home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, antisemitic acts experienced an "explosion" in 2023 after the Hamas attack in Israel, according to the Representative Council of
French Jewish Institutions (Crif), relying in part on data from the Ministry of the Interior. The organization observed a rejuvenation of the perpetrators of these antisemitic acts.
Never before had such a level been reached, according to Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif). The number of recorded antisemitic acts in France surged last year to reach 1,676, compared to 436 in 2022, according to a Crif report, lamenting an "explosion" after October 7, the date of Hamas attacks on Israel.
In six out of ten cases (57.8%), the acts recorded last year were attacks on individuals (physical violence, threatening words and gestures) rather than property, according to this report compiling figures "recorded by the Ministry of the Interior and the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community (SPCJ, an organization linked to Crif working with the police on counting antisemitic acts)."
But these figures only reflect "a part" of the antisemitic acts, those that have been the subject of a complaint or report to the police, Crif points out.
Crif specifies that the report was prepared "thanks to reports from police stations and gendarmeries, qualified during monthly exchanges with the Ministry of the Interior and the SPCJ."
In over 40% of cases, they involved "threatening words and gestures." While they mostly occurred in private spaces (32%) and in public places (20.4%), 7.5% were reported on the internet.
"Youthful Perpetrators of Antisemitic Acts" Another alarming point for Crif, 12.7% of the acts occurred in the school environment, the majority of which were in middle schools. "We are witnessing a rejuvenation of the perpetrators of antisemitic acts. School is no longer a sanctuary of the Republic," he laments.
"For the first time in a long time, the incoming generations are more susceptible to antisemitic prejudices than the previous generations," explains Yonathan Arfi, identifying "three fuels" for this phenomenon: "hatred of Israel, Islamism, and conspiracy theories."
"Explosion" after October 7 In a country that houses the largest Jewish community in Europe (around 500,000 people), Crif notes an "explosion" (+1,000%) of antisemitic acts after October 7. During the three months that followed, their number "equaled that of the previous three years combined."
"October 7 served as a catalyst for hatred, activating latent antisemitism and disinhibiting the transition to action," says Yonathan Arfi, who believes that the vision of massacred Israeli civilians played a triggering role in this phenomenon.
The Hamas attack on October 7 on Israeli soil resulted in the death of over 1,140 people, according to an AFP count based on official data. Israel launched a vast military operation that killed 25,700 Palestinians, according to the latest report from the health ministry of the Islamist movement.
In 2012, after the attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse where three children and a teacher were killed by radicalized delinquent Mohamed Merah, a 200% increase in antisemitic acts was observed. The increase was 300% after the jihadist attack on the Hypercacher supermarket in 2015.
"After October 7, we could have had an empathy effect, a vaccine effect, it was the opposite," sighs the president of Crif.
From around forty each month during the summer period, antisemitic acts rose to 563 in October, 504 in November, and 175 in December, marking a decline at the end of the year.
Crif also points out that some Jews in France may have been tempted to conceal anything that could identify them as Jewish – a mezuzah on the door, a name on the mailbox. photo by Guilhem Vellut from Paris, France, Wikimedia commons.