French teenagers arrested for rape and anti-Semitic attack on 12-year-old Jewish girl

Three French teenagers were arrested in Paris for the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a heinous anti-Semitic attack, police said, prompting President Emmanuel Macron and other politicians to call on schools to crack down on racism and hate-fuelled violence.

The victim from Courbevoie told police that the boys raped her, threatened to kill her and shouted anti-Semitic slurs during the attack on Saturday.

The girl was specifically targeted because of her religion, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office said.

France’s Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia said he was “horrified” by the attack and called on his country to take action against such despicable acts of anti-Semitism.

“The judiciary must severely punish the perpetrators of this despicable act. No one can be acquitted of this unprecedented wave of anti-Semitic activity,” Korsia wrote on X.

One of the suspects was allegedly the victim’s ex-boyfriend, who was planning revenge on her after she allegedly hid from him that she was Jewish, according to local newspaper Le Parisien.

Lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia told French broadcaster BFM that the attack was a reference to the war in the Gaza Strip.

After the attack, the girl was warned not to go to the police and the main perpetrator demanded that she pay 200 euros or $215, “otherwise something bad would happen to her and her family because he knows where she is,” reports Le Parisien.

The attackers – aged 12, 13 and 14 – were all arrested.

Two of the boys were charged with aggravated gang rape of a minor under 15, religiously motivated violence and public insult, death threats, attempted extortion and the unauthorized recording or broadcasting of sexual images.

The two teenagers accused of involvement in the rape are in custody, and the third boy has been placed in a special education program for aiding and abetting the heinous act.

The gruesome crime sparked protests outside Paris City Hall, as citizens were frustrated by the rise of anti-Semitism in France since October 7 and the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Macron immediately condemned the attack and 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.”

Belloubet joined the outrage and declared that the nation would be united in its “response to barbarism.”

“The horror knows no bounds,” Belloubet said in a statement about the crime. “Rape, anti-Semitism: everything about this crime committed in Courbevoie against a 12-year-old girl is abhorrent.”

With post wires