‘Anti-Semitism Spreading Like Poison’: France Stained by Weekend of Vandalism & Year of Hate Crimes

Strasbourg's Grand Rabbi inspects graves desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti in 2018 © Reuters / Vincent Kessler

France’s interior minister has vowed to take a tougher stance on hatred, after multiple incidents of anti-semitic vandalism, and a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes last year.

Parisians were greeted with crudely daubed anti-Semitic slogans on shop fronts last weekend, including swastikas sprayed over images of late politician and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, and the German word for Jews (“Juden”) sprayed on a bagel shop in the city center.  

A memorial tree planted in honor of a young Jewish man, tortured to death in a 2006 attack, was also chopped down. Visiting the suburb where the tree once stood, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner declared that “anti-Semitism is spreading like a poison, like a venom.”

“It’s rotting minds, it’s killing,” Castaner continued, before vowing to crack down on anti-Jewish hatred.

Yellow Vests blamed by some

Castaner did not blame any particular group for the spread of anti-Semitism, but some within the French government and media were quick to blame extremists among anti-Government ‘Yellow Vest’ demonstrators. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux linked the graffiti to an arson attack on the home of Parliamentary Speaker Richard Ferrand one week earlier, believed to be the work of the Yellow Vests. The Union of French Jewish Students also pinned blame for the racist daubings on the Yellow Vests.

The bagel bakery’s owner disputes the link, and said that the graffiti appeared on his shop hours before protests broke out nearby.

video 4:11

Most vicious attacks by Muslim extremists

The video above manages to ignore the role of Islam in the growing antisemitism in France, but it has a major role.

Moreover, France has been struggling with anti-Semitism long before protests began last November. The number of reported anti-Semitic attacks in France rose 74 percent last year to 541, up from 311 in 2017. The most vicious of these attacks was carried out by Islamic extremists, who have revived an ancient religious conflict on the streets of modern France.

After surviving the Vichy government’s roundup of Jews in 1942, 85-year-old Mireille Knoll was was stabbed to death and set on fire in her apartment last March by her Muslim neighbor. Prosecutors said the attack was motivated by the neighbor’s anti-Semitic beliefs.

One year earlier, another elderly Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, was killed by a Malian man who shouted: “Allahu Akbar,” before throwing her out of a window. In 2015, a gunman pledging allegiance to the Islamic State terror group killed four people in a Kosher supermarket in Paris, while 2012 saw three children and a teacher from a Jewish school in Toulouse killed by an Islamist fanatic.

Ilan Halimi, whose memorial tree was vandalized over the weekend, was abducted and ransomed by a group of attackers who believed that all Jews were rich, and could afford to pay up. His family could not afford the ransom, and Halimi died after being tortured for three weeks. In court, the ringleader of the attackers appeared unrepentant, declaring“all Jews are my enemies” and pointing upwards while saying: “Allahu Akbar.”

All radical Muslims are completely insane!

After every attack, the French government pledged to do more to combat anti-Semitism. However, some of France’s Jewish population – the largest in the world behind the United States and Israel – have had enough. An EU-wide survey last year found that French Jews were among the most likely to consider emigrating to Israel, where citizenship is a birthright for Jews worldwide. More than 20,000 of France’s roughly half a million Jews made the one-way trip since 2014.

“In two months we’ll be emigrating to Israel because of the anti-Semitism in Europe,” one French woman told the survey. “Nothing is being done about it. So we are leaving voluntarily.”

As this article points out, radical Muslim are responsible for the most heinous acts of antisemitism, but is it likely that the extraordinary influx of apparently moderate Muslims into Europe is feeding the growing hatred of Jews? Are EU countries addressing this issue in any way? If they don't act soon, most of Europe will be as antisemitic as Nazi Germany was in the late 1930s.

Danish Minister to 'Sharia' Troublemakers: 'Get a Job'

Inger Støjberg talks to local residents on Nørrebro. Photo: Jens Nørgaard Larsen/Scanpix

Danish Minister for Integration Inger Støjberg exchanged views with passers-by - two of whom called her a "Nazi" and “fascist” - during a visit to a bar in Nørrebro, the Copenhagen neighbourhood known for its multicultural population.

Støjberg visited the neighbourhood to talk with one of several bar owners who say they have been threatened by local youths and anonymous vandalism.

Two young Danish woman shouted “Nazi!” at Støjberg as she stood outside Mucki Bar on Thorsgade in Nørrebro, Copenhagen.

After Støjberg asked the women to repeat themselves, they said “fascist” before walking away, according to a report by TV2. The women were stopped by the police shortly after and may face a fine for disturbing public order by swearing at a minister.

Støjberg also responded to the criticisms of passers-by on Nørrebro – mainly young non-ethnic Danes – who expressed their discontent with Støjberg and the government’s policies on immigration.

“You all have opportunities. You just need an education and to get on and find a job,” Støjberg told the crowd, according to a report in BT.

The minister later told BT that education and work was the only way to improve the social problems faced by Nørrebro’s youth.

“The only thing that will help is that they take part in Danish society. You can’t just hang around here all day and harass business owners. They should behave themselves.”

A number of the youths responded by claiming focus on the situation in the area was an overreaction.

“We get attacked by Inger Støjberg: 'education and a job, get on with it'. We have an education, we’re just relaxing at the same time. I completed upper secondary school (gymnasium) last summer. I’m now taking a gap year while I decide what to study," a young man named Ali told BT.

And you are supporting yourself...how?

“You come out here as soon as there’s a slight incident. This is populist politics. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill,” said a second young man, who wished to remain anonymous, according to BT.

Støjberg’s visit to Nørrebro included a meeting with the owner of Mucki Bar, one of a number of bars in the area said to have experienced threats and vandalism from local youths – some of whom have ostensibly claimed that the area falls under Sharia Law.

Mucki Bar’s owner Birgitte Fischer told Jyllands-Posten that bricks had been thrown through the bar’s window during opening hours and that protection money had been demanded from her and her husband, who co-owns the bar.

Heidi Dyrnesli, the owner of Café Heimdal in Nørrebro, said that intruders recently entered her bar and told guests to leave.

“Recently some young men came in and shouted that all the guests should leave. They then shouted that the place belonged to them and that Nørrebro is covered by Sharia, so alcohol is forbidden,” Dyrnesli told Radio24syv.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Inger Støjberg wrote that Nørrebro “is not and never will be” a Sharia zone.

“In fact, you are very lucky that it is not,” continued Støjberg as she addressed the accused vandals in the Facebook post, “because you will be given a fair trial once the police get hold of you.”

But restive youths and vandalism on Nørrebro is not a new problem and no serious cause for concern, say Copenhagen Police.

“The problem is not nearly as bad as the press make it out to be,” Chief Inspector Allan Nyring of Copenhagen Police told Jyllands-Posten.

“Of course, it is serious for the bars that are targeted, but we are dealing here with a small group of disaffected youths who, as soon as spring starts, decide to go out and show off. We often experience this problem at this time of year, but we manage it through dialogue and by punishing the responsible parties if necessary,” Nyring continued.

Nyring told Jyllands-Posten that youths between 14-16 years old are often the culprits when it comes to harassment of Nørrebro’s bars.

“The problem is two-fold. In cases of extortion, we work towards convicting those who are guilty. In cases of harassment, we can often solve things through dialogue with the disaffected youths. They are a group we know well,” Nyring said.