The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on Oct 7, 2023.
“There is deep sadness and outrage… at the sight of these images showing vandalised Jewish sites,” said Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF).
Paris authorities plan to lodge a complaint over the paint incident, said the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo.
“I condemn these acts of intimidation in the strongest possible terms. Anti-Semitism has no place in our city or in our Republic,” she said.
Last year, France registered 1,570 anti-Semitic acts, according to interior ministry figures.
By comparison, 436 anti-Semitic acts were recorded in 2022, and since 2012 they have fluctuated between 311 and 851 per year.
Several EU nations have reported a spike in “anti-Muslim hatred” and “anti-Semitism” since the start of the Gaza war, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
In May 2024, graffiti of red hands was painted beneath the wall at the memorial in central Paris honouring people who saved Jews from persecution during the 1940-44 Nazi occupation of France.
