French President Emmanuel Macron requested that schools hold a “discussion hour” on racism and anti-Semitism this week after the rape of a Jewish girl in a Paris suburb exacerbated the tense social atmosphere in France ahead of the snap election.
Police arrested three teenagers this week following a complaint by a 12-year-old girl from Courbevoie, west of Paris. She told officers that she had been gang-raped while being insulted with anti-Semitic slurs, the Nanterre public prosecution office reported.
The investigation focuses on allegations of rape, death threats, and assault. Alleged religious motivation was an aggravating factor.
Cases of anti-Semitism have risen sharply in France since the attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on 7 October and the subsequent war launched by Israel.
Macron reacted rapidly as France was in the midst of a three-week election campaign after he announced the shocking snap parliamentary elections. On Wednesday, the president asked Education Minister Nicole Belloubet “to organise a discussion in all schools on the fight against antisemitism and racism, to prevent hate speech with serious consequences from infiltrating schools.”
However, critics accused the National Rally and the France Unbowed party of tolerating anti-Semitic views within their ranks. Former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon stated on X that he was “horrified” by the attack.
Horrified by this rape in Courbevoie and everything it highlights regarding the conditioning of criminal male behavior from a young age, and anti-Semitic racism.
Meanwhile Marine Le Pen, whose party is co-founded by a former member of the Waffen SS paramilitary, stated that the gang rape”revolts us.” She also accused the “extreme left” of using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political purposes.
National Rally leader Jordan Bardella also stated on Wednesday that France must fight the “antisemitic atmosphere” present in the country since the outbreak of the Gaza war.
