PARIS (AP) — More than 100,000 people marched in Paris on Sunday to protest rising anti-Semitism following Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several left-wing parties and far-right leader Marie Le Pen attended Sunday’s march in the French capital amid tight security measures. President Emmanuel Macron did not attend, but expressed support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of rampant anti-Semitism.”
However, the leader of the far-left France Insoumise party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stayed away from the march and said last week on X, formerly Twitter, that the march would be a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre.” ”. in Gaza.
Paris authorities deployed 3,000 police along the route of the protest called by the leaders of the Senate and the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, amid an alarming rise in anti-Jewish acts in France since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas after its October .7 surprise attack on Israel.
Thousands of people, including politicians such as Elisabeth Borne and Marie Le Pen, marched through the streets.AP
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.
Holding a French flag, Robert Fiel said marching against anti-Semitism is “more than a duty.”
“It is a march against violence, against anti-Semitism, against all (the political extremes) that are infiltrating society, to show that the silent majority exists,” said the 67-year-old.
One protester noted that he was marching not only against anti-Semitism but also against political extremism of all kinds.AP Some 40 French citizens were killed in the Hamas attack.AP
Relatives of some of the 40 French citizens killed in the initial Hamas attack, and those missing or held hostage, also participated in the march.
Patrick Klugman, a lawyer and member of the “Freethem” committee working to secure the release of people held by Hamas and other groups in Gaza, said the large turnout at the march is significant and symbolic to reassure Jewish communities in France.
“I am very proud of my country for this mobilization,” Klugman said. “I feel less alone than I have in recent weeks and days.”
3,000 police officers showed up to serve along the protest route.AP
French authorities have recorded more than 1,000 acts against Jews across the country in the month since the conflict in the Middle East began.
In a letter to the French on Sunday, Macron promised that the perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished.
“A France where our fellow Jews are afraid is not France,” Macron said in the letter, published in the newspaper Le Parisien. He called on the country to remain “united behind its values… and work for peace and security for all in the Middle East.”
Marie Le Pen attended Sunday’s march despite her National Rally party’s anti-Semitic history.AP
Macron said he will attend “in my heart and in spirit,” but not in person. “My role is to build the unity of the country and be firm in values,” Macron said Saturday on the sidelines of Armistice Day commemorations to mark the end of the First World War.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended Sunday’s march amid fierce criticism that her once-pariah National Rally party has failed to shed its anti-Semitic heritage despite its growing political legitimacy.
After arriving at the rally with party president Jordan Bardella, Le Pen dismissed critics and said she and party members are “exactly where we need to be.” She asked other politicians “to stop fomenting political controversies” during the march.
France has the largest Jewish population in Europe.AP
Until Saturday, the authorities counted 1,247 anti-Semitic acts since October 7, almost triple that of all of 2022, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
France has largely banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations, although supporters have marched in several French cities in recent weeks, including thousands of people demanding a ceasefire in Gaza at a sanctioned protest in Paris last Sunday.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn