PARIS — The alleged rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a alleged anti-Semitic attack has caused shockwaves throughout France and brought concerns about anti-Semitism to the forefront of public opinion. campaigning for the country’s legislative elections.
The anti-immigration National Rally party, which has sought to shed its historical ties to anti-Semitism, is leading in pre-election polls and has its first real chance to form a government, if it emerges victorious in two-round elections that end on July 7. It would be the first far-right force to lead a French government since the Nazi occupation.
Meanwhile, far-left figures have faced accusations of anti-Semitism related to their response to Hamas attack on October 7 against Israel and the war that followed.
The concerns came to light after two teenagers from a Paris suburb were preliminarily charged this week with raping a 12-year-old girl and with religiously motivated violence, according to prosecutors. Lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia told French broadcaster BFM that the girl is Jewish and that the word Palestine was mentioned during the attack.
Hundreds of people gathered around the Bastille monument in Paris on Thursday night to protest anti-Semitism, the second consecutive night of demonstrations.
France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but given its own collaboration with the Nazis during World War II, anti-Semitic acts today open old scars. France also has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe and anti-Muslim acts have increased in recent years.
Politicians on all sides were quick to comment on the attack, particularly after a rise in anti-Semitic acts in France since the beginning of the War between Israel and Hamas.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote in X that the girl was “raped because she is Jewish,” while French President Emmanuel Macron He called on schools to hold a “debate hour” on racism and anti-Semitism.
Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, said that if elected, he would “fight the anti-Semitism that has been plaguing France since October 7.” Following reports of the attack, Bardella announced that his party would withdraw support for one of his candidates over an anti-Semitic social media message posted in 2018.
Her predecessor as party president and National Rally presidential candidate in 2022, Marine Le Pen, accused the “far left” of “stigmatizing Jews” and “instrumentalizing” the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounced “anti-Semitic racism,” although the France Insoumise party he previously led has faced accusations of anti-Semitism linked to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Arié Alimi, lawyer and vice president of the Human Rights League, called for a united front against the extreme right.
“There has been an awareness for some time that there is also anti-Semitism on the left and that we must address it,” he said at Thursday’s rally. “Today it is the camp of the left, of the progressives, that meets with all the people concerned about anti-Semitism and all types of racism in France, at a particular political moment with an extreme right that could possibly come to power.”
Although the alleged rape has raised tensions over anti-Semitism in France ahead of two-round parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7, it is far from a new issue in French politics.
More than 180,000 people across France marched in November to protest rising anti-Semitism in the wake of Israel’s ongoing war. War against Hamas in Gaza.
Together with the then Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and representatives of several other parties, Le Pen attended the march amid fierce criticism that his once-pariah National Rally party had failed to shed its anti-Semitic heritage despite its growing political legitimacy.
Borne, the daughter of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, tweeted that “the presence of the National Rally deceives no one.”
The party’s founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of Marine Le Pen, was repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitic hate speech and downplayed the scope of the Holocaust. Marine Le Pen, second in the last two presidential elections and likely a leading contender in 2027, has worked to clean up the party’s image, ousting her father and changing its name from the National Front to the National Rally.
Attal announced in May that “366 anti-Semitic acts” were recorded between January and March of this year, a 300% increase compared to the first three months of 2023.
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Morton reported from London.
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