Alleged rape of a Jewish girl sends shockwaves across France

The alleged rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a suspected anti-Semitic attack has sent shockwaves across France and brought concerns about anti-Semitism to the forefront of the country’s parliamentary election campaign.

The anti-immigrant Rassemblement National, which is trying to shake off its historical ties to anti-Semitism, is leading in pre-election polls and has its first real chance of forming a government if it emerges victorious from the two rounds of voting that end on July 7.

It would be the first far-right force to lead a French government since the Nazi occupation.

At the same time, far-left politicians were accused of anti-Semitism for their response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and the war that followed.

Concerns came to the fore after two adolescent boys in a Paris suburb were charged this week with the rape of a 12-year-old girl and religiously motivated violence, prosecutors said.

Lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia told French broadcaster BFM that the girl was Jewish and that the word “Palestine” was mentioned during the attack.

Hundreds of people gathered around the Bastille monument in Paris on Thursday evening to protest against anti-Semitism. It was the second night in a row of repeated demonstrations.

France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but anti-Semitic acts are reopening old wounds in the wake of Nazi occupation during World War II. France also has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, and anti-Islamic acts have increased in recent years.

Politicians from all camps were quick to comment on the attack, especially after anti-Semitic incidents in France had increased since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on X that the girl was “raped because she is Jewish,” while French President Emmanuel Macron called on schools to hold a “discussion hour” on racism and anti-Semitism.

Jordan Bardella, leader of the Rassemblement National, said that if elected he would “fight the anti-Semitism that has plagued France since October 7.”

After the attack became known, Bardella announced that his party was withdrawing its support for one of its candidates because of an anti-Semitic message posted on social media in 2018.

His predecessor as party leader and presidential candidate of the Rassemblement National for 2022, Marine Le Pen, accused the “extreme left” of “stigmatizing Jews” and “instrumentalizing” the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon condemned “anti-Semitic racism,” although the party he previously led, “La France Inségoire,” is itself facing accusations of anti-Semitism in connection with the war between Israel and Hamas.

Arie Alimi, lawyer and vice president of the League for Human Rights, called for a common front against the extreme right.

“For some time now there has been an awareness that anti-Semitism also exists on the left and that we need to address it,” he said during the demonstration on Thursday.

“Today it is the camp of the left, of the progressives, that is gathering with all those people who are concerned about anti-Semitism and all forms of racism in France, and this at a special political moment with an extreme right that could potentially come to power.”

Although the alleged rape has heightened tensions over anti-Semitism in France ahead of parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7, it is by no means a new issue in French politics.

In November, more than 180,000 people demonstrated across France against the increasing anti-Semitism resulting from Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Le Pen took part in the march alongside then-Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and representatives of several other parties amid fierce criticism that her once-ostracized Rassemblement National party had failed to shake off its anti-Semitic legacy despite growing political legitimacy.

Ms Borne, the daughter of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, tweeted: “The presence of the National Assembly deceives no one.”

Party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of Marine Le Pen, has been repeatedly condemned for anti-Semitic hate speech and trivialization of the Holocaust.

Marine Le Pen – runner-up in the last two presidential elections and likely one of the strongest contenders in 2027 – has worked to destroy the party’s image by throwing out her father and changing the party’s name from Front National to Rassemblement National.

Mr Attal announced in May that “366 anti-Semitic acts” were recorded between January and March this year, an increase of 300 percent compared to the first three months of 2023.