With over 1,500 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and mid-November - three times the reported number in the entire 2022 - more French Jews seek to escape the climate of fear

With over 1,500 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and mid-November – three times the reported number in the entire 2022 – more French Jews seek to escape the climate of fear

  • @ConstableJelly@beehaw.org
    0•4 months ago

    I feel for anyone who feels unsafe in their homes and communities. I can’t imagine the weight of the decision to uproot yourself and your family to emigrate to another country for reasons beyond your control, especially discrimination.

    It’s worth noting, though, that this article seemingly goes out of its way to obfuscate what qualifies as anti-semitic acts.

    "This kind of expression is no longer coming only from the extreme right, but also by the far left — and while it’s doubtful that it’s always antisemitic, anyone sensitive can feel that it’s never far away in certain discourse,” warns Wieviorka.

    Palestinian solidarity is not anti-semitism, and there are abundant indicators (from this article and its links) they’re being conflated in France.

    • @ArtikBanana@beehaw.orgOP
      0•4 months ago

      And regarding Palestinian solidarity being conflated with anti-semitism, according to this The Guardian article, it stems from people conflating Jews with Israelis:

      Whereas it used to be mostly an extreme-right phenomenon, police say some of the most virulent antisemitism now comes from young people of Muslim origin, who identify with the Palestinians as victims and conflate French Jews with their Israeli oppressors.

      • @derbis@beehaw.org
        0•4 months ago

        It “stems” from a deliberate effort to conflate them by the likes of the ADL .

        Your article itself says:

        Police now believe this was a Russian-inspired destabilisation operation rather than a home-grown intimidation campaign.

        Your article itself also says that the police are the source for this assertion, and goes on to say

        In June, the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver of Moroccan and Algerian descent in a Paris suburb sparked almost two weeks of riots across the country in which schools, buses and police stations were torched, shops looted, mayors assaulted and police attacked in nightly clashes. The violence, which did not specifically target Jews, was fuelled by widespread resentment of perceived police racism.

        And if that weren’t enough, it’s already demonstrated that expressing support for Palestine is being conflated with antisemitism.

        The government initially banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations

        So the government bans support for Palestine, the police enforce that ban, and the police say antisemitism is rising among young Muslims.

        All this from the same article, that you posted. Very weak sauce.

      • @ConstableJelly@beehaw.org
        0•4 months ago

        All your sources rely on the same primary source: the interior ministry. And I don’t see a breakdown of the acts. In a number of articles, graffiti of stars of David across buildings in France was categorized as anti-Semitic, which seems really weird to me because they weren’t defaced or altered in any way, just stars of David. On its face I would think that was…pro-semitic.

        Either way, I’m not denying there has been an uptick in anti-Semitism and that any and all anti-semitism is indefensible. But there also seems to be a deliberate effort to embellish the narrative by treating anti-Israeli or pro-Paletinian acts as anti-Semitic. Then people react to that narrative with fear, and their fear is used to further credit the narrative.

        The insidious part is that these stories treat the narrative as support for Israel’s ongoing aggression.

        • @ArtikBanana@beehaw.orgOP
          0•4 months ago

          Marking buildings with Stars of David is how the Nazis marked Jewish homes and properties.

          There’s this article (The Guardian), which includes accounts from the police chief of Paris, and the mayor of Besancon.

          • @ConstableJelly@beehaw.org
            0•4 months ago

            Marking buildings with Stars of David is how the Nazis marked Jewish homes and properties.

            But that’s unlikely to be what happened here: BBC

            • @ArtikBanana@beehaw.orgOP
              0•4 months ago

              My reply was an explanation to what you wrote in this part and why it is considered antisemitic:

              In a number of articles, graffiti of stars of David across buildings in France was categorized as anti-Semitic, which seems really weird to me because they weren’t defaced or altered in any way, just stars of David. On its face I would think that was…pro-semitic.

              Also in the article that I have linked, the mention of this incident is immediately followed by this:

              Police now believe this was a Russian-inspired destabilisation operation rather than a home-grown intimidation campaign.

              • @ConstableJelly@beehaw.org
                0•4 months ago

                Yeah, that’s fair, I did not have that context originally. I should have quoted the article I linked, because the salient parts point out that it was strange the graffiti evoked the Israeli flag, which I had noticed originally:

                Also the message in the medium was confusing. Conceivably a blue Israeli flag, or what immediately evokes it, could be seen as a pro-Jewish sign. Surely any genuine antisemite would have found a clearer way of expressing their hate.

                I’m inclined to agree with the BBC’s conclusion:

                As for the purpose of Operation Star of David, like all dezinformatsiya it seems to have been to sow confusion and anxiety. The fact that the symbol could be either pro- or anti-Israeli made it all the more interesting: that way both sides would be suspicious.

                I notice the Times of Israel doesn’t consider this months-old information when continuing to reference it as evidence of anti-semitism.