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

PARIS (AP) — 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 Rassemblement National party, which is trying to shake off its historical ties to anti-Semitism, has its first real chance of forming a government if it wins the elections that end on July 7, as polls predict. 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.

Politicians on all sides were quick to comment on the attack, which caused widespread shock and concern, particularly after a rise in anti-Semitic acts in France since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

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.

On Wednesday evening, hundreds of people gathered outside Paris City Hall to protest against anti-Semitism. Many in the crowd carried signs, including some with the slogan “Raped because she’s Jewish.” Further protests are planned for Thursday evening at the Place de la Bastille.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on X that the girl was “raped because she is Jewish,” calling it an anti-Semitic attack, 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.

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.

More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, demonstrated in November against rising anti-Semitism as a result of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It was the largest gathering to condemn anti-Semitism in France since a 1990 demonstration against the desecration of a Jewish cemetery.

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.

Oleg Cetinic and Elise Morton, The Associated Press