Hamas: how the conflict in the Middle East stimulates anti-Semitism in France – L’Express

This link encourages the authorities to take precautions. Since the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, a “hundred anti-Semitic acts” have been recorded in France, Gérald Darmanin declared this Thursday on France Inter. The spectrum of these acts is wide, ranging from “threatening remarks” against Israel and the Jews, to the display of banners. The minister added that 24 people were arrested at this time. Among them, a man presenting himself as Syrian was, for example, arrested on Sunday in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, near the Beth Hanna Jewish school. He had tried to break into the establishment. Earlier in the week, the Minister of the Interior reiterated that there was no “known serious threat affecting Jewish compatriots on national territory”, but still asked the prefects to raise the level of protection synagogues and Jewish schools. The implementation of this measure, linked to the fear of a possible importation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into France, was immediately requested by Beauvau.

To measure the extent to which outbreaks of fever in the Middle East are accompanied by an increase in anti-Semitic acts on the national territory, it is enough to look at the data collected by the Ministry of the Interior and the Protection Service of the Jewish community (SPCJ). The seriousness of the facts recorded is varied, ranging from anti-Semitic inscriptions, including insults, attacks on people, and even physical violence. In 2022, they are estimated at 436. “We bring together very different things behind these statistics recorded by the Ministry of the Interior, notes Nonna Mayer, researcher in political science, specialist in the extreme right and anti-Semitism and member of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH). In 2022, 43% of these recorded facts are threatening words and gestures, 33% are anti-Semitic inscriptions, 10% are physical violence, 7% are leaflets with insulting characters, 5% of damage and 2% of theft.

These figures constitute only part of the anti-Semitic acts possibly taking place in France, since they only include those which gave rise to legal proceedings after a complaint was filed. “There is possibly an under-evaluation of anti-Semitic acts, because many people do not dare to file a complaint – for lack of means, of trust in the institution, or both,” explains magistrate Magali Lafourcade, secretary general. of the CNCDH.

Without presenting a complete assessment of the phenomenon, these data nevertheless provide an interesting snapshot of the evolution of anti-Semitic acts in the country. First lesson: it is not uniform. The facts recorded follow a sawtooth trajectory, marked by current events, in particular those linked to the Middle East. Peaking at around a hundred in the 1990s, the number of anti-Semitic acts experienced a sudden increase in 2000, to 744. “The phenomenon is very clear: in 1998, there were 81 acts, 82 the following year. In 2000, we increase to ten times more from the month of October, explains the historian and essayist Marc Knobel. This date marks the start of the second Intifada. At the time, the conflict was enormously publicized. In the space of 15 days, between October 1 and 15, 2000, 75 acts were recorded, almost as many as for the previous year.

After a slight drop in 2001, complaints rose to 936 the following year. “The resurgence of anti-Semitism can be compared to the resurgence of the Middle East conflict, observed the CNCDH in its 2002 activity report. That year, the sudden increase in anti-Jewish acts occurred at the end of March and beginning of April, at the time of the Israeli army’s offensive in the West Bank and the resurgence of suicide attacks in Israel”. At the time, the Ministry of the Interior indicated that certain authors “pretended to identify with the Palestinians, using forms of urban violence”. This was also the case in 2009, where, despite several years of decline, the reversal of trend (815 acts) “is attributed mainly to reactions sparked by events in the Middle East, which led to an increase in the number of anti-Semitic actions”, notes the CNCDH in his report.

These developments are seen from year to year, but can also be seen from month to month. In 2021, the CNCDH thus noticed, “in May, a surge linked to the Israeli operation ‘guardian of the walls’, and another peak, less pronounced, in August”. This phenomenon was even more marked in 2014. That year, the organization noted that “several peaks of violence occurred during the year alongside certain events, notably the ‘Day of Wrath’ demonstration in January and the intensification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the summer. On July 20, in Sarcelles, in Val-d’Oise, businesses, particularly Jewish ones, were vandalized on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Seven days before, in the area of ​​rue de la Roquette, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, fights had taken place between members of the Jewish community and demonstrators for Palestine.

That year, the increase was colossal, with actions giving rise to concrete violence – vandalism, fire, etc. – increasing by 130%, and threats by 90%. “This is seen in 2002, 2004, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017, when we are at a height of clashes between Israel and Hamas, Israel and the Palestinians, or there are clashes between the northern border, the increases referenced exceed 600 acts”, continues Marc Knobel. “We quickly understand that the increase in acts in France presents a correlation – non-exclusive – with the violence which takes place 4,000 km away”, estimates the historian.

“The conflict in the Middle East is the main trigger for anti-Semitic acts in France, confirms Nonna Mayer. This phenomenon is very visible here because we have the largest Jewish minority in Europe.” That is 400,000 to 500,000 people. Larger than elsewhere, the Jewish community is more often the victim of anti-Semitic acts. But beyond the number, the historical question must also be taken into account. “France has a particularity, namely that of having both a large Sephardic Jewish minority who came from the Maghreb at the time of decolonization and a large immigrant population from largely Muslim countries in the Maghreb or Africa. In other words , France is a country where these two minorities can be face to face because they often live in the same places, in neighborhoods, in the Paris suburbs for example.”

There is no question, however, of seeing in these increases a direct and automatic transposition of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in France. “We carried out local surveys, in Sarcelles and in the 19th century, in Paris, two places where many minorities live together, continues Nonna Mayer. However, daily relations are going rather well. We should not see in the previous figures a confrontation systematic between Jews and Muslims which would result from what is happening in the Middle East. The rise in anti-Semitic acts is not only correlated with what is happening in the region. Other news-related factors come into play. In 2004, 974 anti-Semitic acts were recorded: the CNCDH notes that “the monthly evolution of anti-Semitism does not mark peaks that could correspond to major events in the Middle East”. That year, the report’s authors noted “greater involvement of the extreme right” in racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic acts.

The years 2020 and 2021, marked by the Covid epidemics, also represent the return of old prejudices about the Jewish community. “The attacks were more of an insult (signs, leaflets). It was the return of the myth of the Jew who poisoned wells, for example,” describes Nonna Mayer. Facilitated by the anonymity often permitted by the Internet, the disinhibition of anti-Semitic thoughts could be translated into real life. “Anti-Semitism is often driven by imitation effects, which we see online, and which can also have an effect outside the Internet, comments Magali Lafourcade. The trivialization of anti-Semitic speech encourages people to move on to ‘act”.