Macron urges schools to discuss growing anti-Semitism after three French teenagers arrested for alleged gang rape of Jewish girl

PARIS – President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called on schools to hold a “discussion hour” this week on racism and anti-Semitism, after the rape of a Jewish girl in a Paris suburb contributed to the charged social climate in France ahead of elections.

Three teenagers were arrested this week after a 12-year-old girl from Courbevoie, west of Paris, filed a complaint. The girl told police she had been the victim of a gang rape and had been insulted with anti-Semitic slurs, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office said.

The investigation focuses on charges of rape, death threats and bodily harm, with an alleged religious background cited as an aggravating circumstance.

Since the attack by armed Hamas fighters on southern Israel on October 7 and the subsequent war launched by Israel against the Islamist group, anti-Semitic incidents have increased sharply in France.

Macron reacted quickly as France was in the middle of a three-week election campaign after he unexpectedly called early parliamentary elections.

The president on Wednesday called on Education Minister Nicole Belloubet to “organize a discussion in all schools on the fight against anti-Semitism and racism in order to prevent hate speech from entering schools with serious consequences,” Macron’s office said.

Opponents accused the Rassemblement National and the right-wing radical party La France Insomniac within the Front Popular alliance of tolerating anti-Semitic views in their ranks. Both parties deny these allegations.

The leader of the Rassemblement National, Jordan Bardella, said on Wednesday that France must fight against an “anti-Semitic atmosphere” that has prevailed in the country since the beginning of the Gaza war.