Anti-Semitic Incidents Near Doubled in France in 2014, Watchdog Says
Image by Getty Images
A French Jewish watchdog recorded a near doubling of anti-Semitic incidents in France for the first seven months of 2014 compared to the same period last year.
From Jan. 1 to July 31, SPCJ documented 527 anti-Semitic incidents compared to 276 in the same period of 2013, the security service reported in a statement Thursday. In all of last year, SPCJ documented 423 incidents.
The bulk of the 91 percent increase this year, SPCJ wrote, “is attributable to a particularly large increase of 126 percent in the ‘violent acts’ category” and “to peaks that corresponded with the anti-Israel protests” of Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza this summer.
Another peak occurred early in 2014 when authorities banned the comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala from going on tour with a show deemed anti-Semitic. Violent incidents rose to 158 from 70 in the reported time frame. This year’s acts were targeted equally against people and property.
Across Western Europe, anti-Semitic incidents rose sharply following the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, several watchdog groups reported.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/09/11/news-opinion/world/anti-semitic-incidents-nearly-double-in-france-watchdog-reports#ixzz3D2QZvSg4
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
