“The same firmness” and the “same intransigence”. Emmanuel Macron hammered home this Monday, March 18, in front of the Jewish community that the State would continue to tirelessly fight anti-Semitism, which has been on the rise since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7.
“Every time the slightest trace of anti-Semitism reappears, we will be intractable, as we have always been and before me, my predecessors,” he declared on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Representative Council of Institutions Jews of France (Crif), at the Elysée.
Present were the main leaders of the Jewish community as well as those of other religions, as well as Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
The foundation that unites the nation is under attack
The government has been “intractable in repressing anti-Semitism wherever it is, in the streets, behind the screens, in our universities”, continued the Head of State, referring to the case of Sciences Po Paris. Emmanuel Macron denounced Wednesday during the Council of Ministers “unspeakable and completely intolerable” remarks reported during a pro-Palestinian mobilization in the prestigious establishment. “Through anti-Semitism, it is the foundation that unites the nation that is attacked,” he pointed out.
The president of Crif, Yonathan Arfi, deplored that anti-Semitic acts have “multiplied since the abyss of October 7 and that our republican model (is) attacked like never before in 80 years”. They jumped in 2023, to 1,676 compared to 436 in 2022, according to a Crif report.
“Today the extreme right is knocking on the door of power, the extreme left is playing provocations by fueling anti-Semitism and communitarianism and Islamism is openly declaring war on us,” he said. He denounced “the culpable ambiguities of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the dubious recoveries of Marine Le Pen” on this subject and also called for the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into anti-Semitism in universities.
Macron accepts his disagreements with Netanyahu
Yonathan Arfi finally asked that France show “the same solidarity and the same confidence in Israeli democracy in the face of terrorism” as it does for Ukraine in the face of Russia, worrying to see it “judge Israel more severely than other democracies” in international bodies.
The head of state responded that “loving Israel, wanting its security, does not mean subscribing to all the choices of a democratic government of the moment.” “We must assume, as democracies allow, to experience disagreements,” he added in reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for respect for “humanitarian law, the law of war, international law.” in Gaza.