Five times more anti-Semitic acts than usual. The figures for the forty-eight hours following the bloody Hamas attack in Israel call for “vigilance”, says the French Ministry of the Interior. Around twenty facts have been identified, announced Gérald Darmanin on October 9, like these two men arrested in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes), after they had toured the Loubatvitch prayer center several times. On the evening of Monday, October 9, an Audi car was also sought in Créteil (Val-de-Marne) for the same reason: repeated passes in front of the Rabbi Chimone Bar Yohai synagogue. In Marseille, several people who mimed shootings in front of a place of worship have not been found. In the inner suburbs of Paris, six men were arrested for anti-Semitic remarks, near the Acip synagogue, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, as well as on the Pont d’Iéna, where one of the four individuals arrested for having uttered slogans hater carried a Palestinian flag. Among the most worrying cases, that of a man presenting himself as Syrian who was arrested on October 8 near the Beth Hanna school-synagogue, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, the individual had attempted to enter in the building.
If there is no “clear threat”, Gérald Darmanin repeated several times, that is to say an identified terrorist cell, the minister immediately asked the prefects to raise the level of protection of synagogues and Jewish schools. . The sign that the importation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into France is a hypothesis deemed credible. Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), invited on October 9 to Beauvau for a meeting with Gérald Darmanin, praised the speed of the government, but confided that he had no illusions: ” We know that when there is violence in the Middle East, we experience aftershocks in France. This was the case in 2014, several synagogues were attacked in Paris, rue des Tournelles, rue de la Roquette, or in Sarcelles. I also do not forget that Mohammed Merah and Amedy Coulibaly justified their attacks in particular by the fate of the Palestinians.” Overlaps between the radical pro-Palestinian movement and jihadist cells have sometimes been observed: Nassim Tache led the Cheikh Yassine collective, organizer of an undeclared pro-Palestinian demonstration at Place Saint-Michel, in Paris, on December 29, 2012. He was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2017 for terrorist conspiracy. The collective was dissolved in October 2020, after its founder, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, was involved in the assassination of Samuel Paty.
For the moment, neither “planned” terrorist designs from abroad nor agitation within French radical Islamist circles have been noted by the security services. A former head of a French intelligence service, however, fears “the opening of a Shiite threat” towards French Jews. And embodied by Hezbollah, specifies an official from the Ministry of the Interior. Proof that this threat is considered serious, several institutions targeted a few months ago by sanctions from Iran, such as the Radio J station, have seen their protection reinforced by the DGSI. Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Mas, former DGSE agent and good expert on the Middle East, underlines on the contrary that “Shiite terrorism is distinguished by a search for rather relevant targets, with a stated objective proportional to the blow received “. Short-term action “would make no sense”, he believes, because it would formalize an entry into total war with the West.
“The ultra-left worries us more than the suburbs”
In December 2022, the Washington Post revealed that Iran had considered assassinating Bernard-Henri Lévy, a long-time activist against the abuses of the mullahs’ regime. Information then not denied but qualified by a source within French intelligence interviewed by L’Express, who specified that “nothing [n’avait] could be formally demonstrated”. In 1985-1986, a wave of attacks in France attributed to Hezbollah, notably the explosion in front of the Tati store, rue de Rennes, in Paris, left 13 dead. Several anti-Semitic attacks, such as that of the synagogue on rue Copernic, on October 3, 1980, in which four people were killed, or that on rue des Rosiers, on August 9, 1982, which left six dead, were attributed to Palestinian terrorist organizations, notably the Abu Nidal group.
“We must expect attacks. We will not stop there,” fears a prefectural source, referring rather to isolated, even confusing, companies that reinforced security systems will have to thwart. The intelligence services are also concerned about possible common law hateful acts. A security source particularly fears “images likely to outrage the pro-Palestinian sphere”, likely to lead to demonstrations which the precedent of 2014 showed could result. On July 20, 2014, in Sarcelles (Val-d’Oise), several businesses, notably Jewish ones, were vandalized on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian demonstration. The same day, in the Barbès district of Paris, another pro-Palestinian rally, in the presence of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), turned into a violent confrontation with the police. A week earlier, on July 13, 2014, street fights broke out between demonstrators for Palestine and members of the Jewish community, near the La Roquette synagogue, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.
“At this stage, the ultra-left worries us more than the suburbs,” adds a source at the Ministry of the Interior, emphasizing the know-how of these networks in matters of agitprop. On October 9, the first calls to demonstrate in favor of the Palestinians came from the far left. The Antifa Lyon group relayed a call for a “rally in support of the Palestinian resistance”, banned by the prefecture. The slogan came from “la Fosse aux Lyons”, an informal group created last May, in favor of the “armed resistance” of the Palestinian people against “the Zionist regime of Israel” and “for a Palestine free from sea to the Jordan”, a formula which suggests the disappearance of the State of Israel. Their name is a tribute to the Lions’ Den, a Palestinian armed group responsible for several attacks.
150 people still participated in the demonstration, chanting slogans like “Israel, get out of there! Palestine is not yours”. Four people were arrested. A new call to demonstrate in Lyon in favor of Palestine was made by the Palestine 69 collective, for Wednesday October 11. In Marseille, a gathering of the same type at the initiative of the CGT of Bouches-du-Rhône was banned on Tuesday October 10 by the prefecture.
Dissolution of the PIR requested
Several Jewish organizations, including Crif, have also asked the Minister of the Interior to dissolve virulent pro-Palestinian groups which have welcomed Hamas attacks. Among them, the Indigenous Party of the Republic (PIR), which the rebellious MP Danièle Obono had described, in 2017, as “comrades” to the review Ballast.
“Glory to the Palestinian resistance”, wrote the PIR on Saturday October 7, before proclaiming, the next day, its “militant brotherhood” with the terrorists, magnified in a drawing shared on X (formerly Twitter). Crif also called for the dissolution of the Palestine Vainra collective to materialize. “This surprise attack provoked a wave of pride and solidarity throughout occupied Palestine, but also throughout the world. These scenes of jubilation underline that the Palestinian people reaffirm their clear rejection of colonization and occupation,” he said. exulted the association in a press release published after the Hamas offensive.
On March 9, 2022, a decree in the Council of Ministers declared the dissolution of Palestine will prevail. The document signed by Gérald Darmanin estimated that the collective “appeal[ait] regularly to discrimination and hatred towards Israel, […] cultivated[ait] hatred and legitimization of the use of violence against Israel and Israelis [et] incite[ait] to hatred towards the Jews”. In summary proceedings, the Council of State suspended the government act. The decision on the merits should be pronounced soon. In the meantime, Palestine will overcome called for demonstrations “in solidarity with the Palestinian people” and for the “stopping of cooperation between France and Israel” Thursday October 12 in Toulouse. At his side, numerous associations of the radical left: Student Solidarity, Permanent Revolution, Le Poing Raised, and the Truth and Justice Committee 31, local emanation of the organization led by Assa Traoré.