AJN.- Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Paris on Sunday against the stark increase in anti-Semitic acts since the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas.
Similar marches took place in Strasbourg in eastern France, in Lyon in the center of the country, and in Nice in the south.
The Parisian procession was led by the President of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, and the President of the National Assembly, Yael Braun-Bivet, who started the demonstration, accompanied by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, several ministers and dozens of parliamentarians.
President Emmanuel Macron decided not to participate, but he published an open letter to citizens encouraging them to march, and indicated that his heart was with them.
Hundreds of mayors and municipal council members from across the country also participated in the march, all wearing the traditional blue, white and red ribbon of French elected officials on their chests.
Many of those who participated in the march in Paris were not Jews, but rather concerned Frenchmen, condemning the rise of anti-Semitism. Among them were members of the famous Cirque du Soleil, who came in groups and called for an end to anti-Semitism in France.
Starting from Place Invalides, people walked in silence for about three hours, through the Latin Quarter to the Palace of the Senate of Luxembourg. Every few minutes, the silence was broken by the singing of the French national anthem, “National Anthem de France,” followed by long minutes of applause. Others chanted slogans such as “No, no, no to anti-Semitism; Yes, yes, yes to our republic!
The initiative led to a division in society, as the extreme left refused to participate in it. Members of the Proud France party were heavily criticized for boycotting the march, and demonstrated next to a monument in southern Paris commemorating the 1942 Ville d’Have raid, but local Jews went to the site and demonstrated against what they called “exploitation.” “From the Holocaust.
Other far-left politicians, including Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, joined the Paris march, and participants booed them and told them to leave. French far-right leaders were also booed. The head of the National Rally parliamentary party, Marine Le Pen, arrived at the rally, as did the head of her party, Jordan Bardella, and far-right politicians Eric Zemmour and Marion Marichal. Jewish community leaders said before the march that the extreme right had no place in the rally.
The mayor of Epinay-sur-Seine, Hervé Chevreau, arrived at the march in Paris with a number of members of his municipality.
“Our city is twinned with Mevaseret Zion, so of course my place is here today, along with many other French mayors. We have a large Jewish community in our city, with many schools, synagogues and a rabbinical school. He said: “In our city we have not witnessed many anti-Semitic incidents, but we must all work hard so that none of this happens, neither where we live nor in any other French city.”
“We are here to demonstrate against anti-Semitism, which has increased dramatically in France since October 7,” Frederic Versum told the Jerusalem Post. “We feel anxious. We feel that social/moral barriers no longer exist. Everything is allowed.”
“I often use public transportation and now I feel afraid. We all hide our religious signs. We are careful all the time. We watch each other’s backs. I hide the Star of David necklace especially when I am in college. My grandparents removed the mezuzah from their door. I am very sad,” she says. Elisa Versum, a student at the Sorbonne University in Paris: “All this must stop.”
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