France has seen a 74% rise in anti-Semitic incidents over the past year, according to French authorities.
France is the home to Europe’s largest Jewish community,
CNN reports that French President Emmanuel Macron has gone as far as to say that anti-Semitism is at its worst levels in France and in other parts of Europe since World War II.
Studies have shown anti-Semitism is rising sharply across Europe but this violent resurgence in France has triggered some deep soul-searching with many asking: what’s behind it? Why now? Some have questioned the Yellow Vest movement and whether its radical fringe is partly to blame for the sudden uptick.
“Anti-Semitism was going strong before the yellow vests, but it’s even stronger today thanks to some of them,” the head of the French Council of Jewish Institutions, Francis Kalifat, said last month.
“Gilets Jaunes, Colere Noir” is a popular slogan among the leaderless movement, meaning “Yellow Vests, Black Rage.” For almost four months it’s this rage that has poured out along the Champs Elysees, shattering shop windows, leaving police officers wounded and symbolically knocking the Marianne, a national figure who embodies the French Republic, off her perch.
