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| French President Emmanuel Macron, right, looks at a vandalized grave during a visit at the Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, eastern France, Tuesday Feb. 19, 2019. AP-Yonhap |
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday promised action as he visited a vandalized Jewish cemetery, while thousands rallied across France in protest at recent acts of anti-Semitism.
Former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy as well as Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and serving politicians joined crowds thronging Place de la Republique in Paris.
"Anti-Semitism is a scourge, it's an attack on the republic," socialist Hollande told journalists, adding: "Anti-Semitism isn't a Jewish issue, it's an issue for all French people."
"We will take action, we will pass laws, and we will impose punishments," Macron promised earlier as he visited the small graveyard in Quatzenheim alongside France's Grand Rabbi Haim Korsia, members of the Jewish community and other locals.
"Those who have done this are not worthy of the republic," he declared.
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| Svastikas are painted on graves at a Jewish cemetery, on the day of a nationwide marches against a rise in anti-Semitic attacks, in Quatzenheim, near Strasbourg, France, Feb. 19, 2019. EPA-Yonhap |
Eighty gravestones at the cemetery in the Alsace village were vandalized, local authorities said. Photographs published by regional newspaper Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace showed swastikas, the symbol of Nazi Germany, painted on gravestones.
It was the latest in a series of acts of anti-Semitism that have drawn widespread condemnation in France lately, and came a week after authorities announced that recorded anti-Semitic incidents rose by 74 per cent year on year in 2018, to reach 541.
Recent weeks have seen anti-Semitic graffiti appear in several places in Paris.
In a southern suburb, two trees planted to commemorate the spot where a young Jewish man was found dying after a barbaric kidnapping in 2006 were found vandalized days before a memorial service was due to take place.
On Saturday, prominent Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut was showered with insults, some of them anti-Semitic, when he crossed paths in the capital with protesters from the Yellow Vest movement.
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| (From L to R) President of the French Senate Gerard Larcher, French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the French National Assembly Richard Ferrand visit the Shoah memorial, in Paris, on February 19, 2019. AFP-Yonhap |
Condemnation of the attack on the cemetery came from Israel too, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was calling on "the leaders of France and Europe to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism."
"It is a plague that endangers everyone, not just us, and it must be condemned wherever and whenever it rears its head," Netanyahu said.
Macron did not join the protest in Place de la Republique, but instead visited the Shoah (Holocaust) Memorial in Paris after his return from Quatzenheim.
Along with National Assembly President Richard Ferrand and Senate President Gerard Larcher, he laid a wreath at the memorial, in Paris' central Marais district, formerly a stronghold of the city's Jewish community.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally was not invited to join the demonstrations, which were jointly called by other political parties ranging from the radical left to the conservative right.
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| People take part in a rally against antisemitism, at Republique square in Paris, on February 19, 2019. AFP-Yonhap |
The National Rally in turn accused the parties calling the demonstration of turning a blind eye to what it alleges is the role of Islamism in propagating anti-Semitism.
But Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure, who first called for the demonstration, said Le Pen maintained links with "those who push hatred around the world," such as Italy's far-right deputy premier Matteo Salvini or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Le Pen and party colleagues instead laid a wreath at a memorial to Ilan Halimi, the young Jewish man murdered in the Paris suburbs in 2006.
Macron was due to speak about anti-Semitism on Wednesday evening as guest at the annual dinner of the French Jewish umbrella organization CRIF, according to a source in the Elysee Palace. (DPA)
