Sawt Falasteen - Anti-Semitic acts at 'historic' highs in France despite 2024 fall: council

The figure of 1,570 incidents marked a six-percent fall from the 1,676 recorded in 2023 but well above the numbers in the past decade or so.

By comparison, 436 anti-Semitic acts were recorded in 2022 and since 2012 they have fluctuated between 311 and 851 per year.

"For the second consecutive year, we are facing a historic number of anti-Semitic acts," said the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), an umbrella body of French Jewish groups, in a report based on figures from the Jewish community and the ministry of the interior.

The CRIF has emphasised that anti-Semitic incidents surged in France in 2023 following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which was followed by Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

The figures only cover acts that have been the subject of a complaint, and therefore "this does not cover the entire phenomenon of anti-Semitism in France," CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told AFP.

"Unfortunately, a large part of the phenomenon does not give rise to complaints, particularly in schools," he added.

The CRIF singled out attacks including the attempted arson on the synagogue in the town of La Grande-Motte in August, the fire at the synagogue in the city of Rouen in May and the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in mid-June in Courbevoie outside Paris.

Hamas's attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

It sparked a war that has levelled much of Gaza and killed 47,107, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory which the United Nations considers reliable.

A ceasefire came into effect at the weekend.

France is home to Europe's largest Jewish community and the third-largest in the world after Israel and the United States.

H.Darwish--SF-PST