Rape of 12-year-old Jewish girl in France sends shockwaves – NBC New York

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 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 religious 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 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 today are reopening old wounds, given its own collaboration with the Nazis in World War II. France also has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, and the number of anti-Muslim acts has 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.” 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.

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 throwing out her father and changing its name from Front National to 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.

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Morton reported from London.