France vows firm response to wave of anti-Semitic vandalism

PARIS: The French government called Tuesday for a firm response to a series of anti-Semitic acts over the weekend including graffiti and vandalism which have raised fresh alarm.

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux urged the police to pursue the culprits while suggesting the spate of attacks could be blamed on far-left and far-right activists who have infiltrated weekly "yellow vest" protests.

Demonstrators have gathered every Saturday in Paris since November to denounce the government of President Emmanuel Macron. "We´re not talking about the protesters who are struggling to make ends meet," Griveaux told France 2 television. "But those who are committing violent acts, openly anti-Semitic or racist acts, they must be charged and severely punished," he said.

But the rise in anti-Semitic acts in France pre-dates the "yellow vest" movement and there was no evidence on Tuesday tying the latest incidents to the movement. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner revealed Monday that the number of anti-Jewish offences reported to the police surged 74 percent last year, to 541 from 311 in 2017.

In a statement Tuesday, Castaner said 183 involved assaults and at least one murder, while 358 were anti-Semitic threats or insults. "Anti-Semitism is spreading like poison," Castaner said while visiting a memorial site outside Paris for a young Jewish man who was tortured to death in 2006.

A tree planted at the site where 23-year-old Ilan Halimi´s body was found had been chopped down, and a second tree was partly sawed through. Also in recent days, the word "Juden" (German for Jew) was scrawled on the window of a bagel bakery in Paris, and swastikas were drawn on Paris postal boxes decorated with a portrait of former government minister and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil.

Last weekend, an anti-discrimination advocate revealed a graffiti saying "Macron Jews´ Bitch", in English, on a garage door in the centre of Paris, and the phrase "Jewish pig" scrawled on a wall in the city´s northern 18th district.

President Emmanuel Macron was also targeted in graffiti discovered Monday at the headquarters of French daily Le Monde, using anti-Semitic tropes to refer to his former job as a Rothschild investment banker. Junior foreign minister Sebastien Lecornu also pointed the finger at "yellow vest" protesters for the latest offences.