Anti-Semitic Incidents Drop Dramatically in France
— Anti-Semitic incidents in France have decreased by 64 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to a year ago, according to a French official who credited his government’s policing around Jewish institutions.
Gilles Clavreul, France’s interministerial delegate for the fight against racism and anti-Semitism, said this week that the drop began in June 2015 and continued into the first seven months of this year over the corresponding period of 2015.
Clavreul did not name the number of incidents recorded in those periods in an interview published Tuesday in Actualite Juive, but he did say that “if this tendency continues, we could drop below the 400 mark of incidents per year – one of the best results of the past 15 years.”
Referring to the posting of some 12,000 soldiers at Jewish neighborhoods and institutions following the murder of four people at a kosher supermarket in January 2015, Clavreul added: “The security measures put in place around synagogues and Jewish schools have had a discouraging effect” on would-be attackers.
A total of 808 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in France last year – a 5 percent decrease over the previous year but still the fifth-highest number of incidents recorded since the 1980s and more than double the total for 2011.
On average, France has seen 606 incidents annually since the year 2000, when attacks against Jews over Israel’s actions against the Palestinians first led to a substantial rise in incidents in France.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
