France shocked by alleged rape of Jewish girl, anti-Semitism comes to the fore in election campaign

PARIS: 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 campaign for the country’s parliamentary elections.

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 the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the war that followed.

Concerns arose after two adolescent boys in a Paris suburb were provisionally charged this week with raping a 12-year-old girl and committing 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. Prosecutors did not specify the girl’s religious affiliation or reveal her identity, in line with guidelines to protect victims, as is standard practice in hate crimes in France.

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

France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but anti-Semitic acts are reopening old wounds as a result of its own collaboration with the Nazis in World War II. France also has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, and anti-Muslim 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 the social media platform 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.” Following reports of the attack, Bardella announced that his party would withdraw its support for one of its candidates because he posted an anti-Semitic message 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 Insomnée,” is itself facing accusations of anti-Semitism in connection with the war between Israel and Hamas.

“There has never been any ambiguity in our condemnation of anti-Semitism,” MP Manuel Bompard of the France Insébé party told French news channel La Chaîne Info on Wednesday, rejecting accusations that his party’s stance on anti-Semitism and the war between Israel and Hamas was contributing to a climate of insecurity for French Jews. “Making people believe that there is a link between what happened and the political positions of the France Insébé party is insulting and inappropriate,” he said.

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

“For some time now, people have been aware that there is anti-Semitism on the left and that we have to confront it,” he said at Thursday’s demonstration. “Today, it is the camp of the left, of the progressives, that is gathering with all the people who are concerned about anti-Semitism and all forms of racism in France, at a particular 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 enjoying increasing political legitimacy.

Borne, the daughter of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, tweeted: “The presence of the National Assembly does not deceive anyone.”

Party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s father, has been convicted several times for anti-Semitic hate speech and trivializing the extent of the Holocaust. Marine Le Pen – runner-up in the last two presidential elections and likely one of the top candidates in 2027 – has worked to ruin the party’s image by kicking out her father and changing its name from the Front National to the Rassemblement National.

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

Anti-Semitism refers to hatred of Jews, but there is no universally accepted definition of what exactly it entails or how it relates to criticism of Israel. The Israeli government regularly accuses its opponents of anti-Semitism, while critics claim it uses the term to silence opposition to its policies.

The war has reignited the long-running debate over the definition of anti-Semitism, and whether any criticism of Israel – from the killing of thousands of Palestinian children by the Israeli military to questions about Israel’s right to exist – amounts to anti-Jewish hate speech.

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Morton reported from London.