"I was never afraid to say I was Israeli. On the contrary, I'm very proud of it," Omar, who has lived in Paris for 25 years, tells Israel Hayom. "Now things are different. Ever since the children were born, I spoke Hebrew to them, everywhere. Since October 7, I no longer converse Hebrew with them outside – in the garden or when I pick them up from school.
Police disperse pro-Palestinian demonstration in Paris
"Even when I take a taxi here in Paris, I maintain discretion. I used to immediately start a conversation with the driver, today I keep quiet. I have a friend who changed his name in his subscription to Overeat. He has an Israeli name, and he's really scared."
Omer was born in Israel. He went to France to study and stayed there. His wife was born in France, and they have two small children born here. "I've gotten used to the disguised, older anti-Semitism," he says. "The jealousy of the successful Jews, the money thing, it's always been here. I live with it, but in recent years a second anti-Semitism, of radical Islam, has been growing in France, and in recent weeks it has raised its head."
Zoom-protected remotely
"There's the mezuzah issue, everyone here is talking about it," shares a family father who came to pray at the synagogue in Paris on Friday. According to him, the WhatsApp groups of members of the Jewish communities in France are full of such conversations. "Should the mezuzah be moved from the outer door frame inside the house, so they won't be seen? People worry. Lots of rumors circulating, is it possible to continue using Uber taxi services? After all, the driver knows exactly who he's picking up. Maybe it's better to just call a taxi on the street? One of the doctors from the synagogue told me he was considering going back to Zoom consultations. With a name like his, the whole neighborhood knows he's Jewish, and he feels exposed."
Houses marked with a Star of David in Paris,
Jewish homes marked in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, photo: Organization of Jewish Students in France
Emma Halali, president of Jewish student organizations in Europe, is worried: "My sister is studying law at a university in Brussels, but since October 7 she has been afraid to come to campus and does not attend classes but studies at home."
The situation in France is not necessarily better. Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti reported on Sunday that more than 400 people had been arrested since the start of the war on suspicion of antisemitic acts. 5,300 alerts were posted on the state-run Paros platform, which documents incidents of hatred, racism and antisemitism, 300 of which led to court decisions, including prison sentences.
The numbers are startling. In the past three weeks alone, France has recorded a similar number of antisemitic incidents to that recorded in all of 2022. What is even more worrying is that this phenomenon only continues to increase, with a rate of more than 100 detainees per week.
Demonstration in support of the Palestinians in Paris, photo: AP
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Paris, Photo: AP
Paris woke up on Tuesday to another frightening phenomenon: some 60 Stars of David were spray-painted on walls across the city, in the 14th, 15th and 18th arrondissements, as well as in several cities neighboring the French capital, reminding many of scenes from the Holocaust era. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne strongly condemned these harsh acts: "Whoever attacks a person for being a Jew attacks the soul of the republic," she told members of the National Assembly.
Initially, the authorities tried to stop the demonstrations and refused to grant them licenses because of their accompanying inciting content, but the court eventually decided to approve them.
No Star of David necklace
The rise in antisemitic incidents is felt both in the political system in Europe and across campuses.
"This is true of Belgium and France, but it is also true of the Netherlands, Spain and the UK," says Halali, "and what is even more worrying is that universities refuse to talk about it. As far as they're concerned, it's about preserving free speech."
Meanwhile, members of the European Jewish Students Organization began collecting student testimonies in order to centralize the information to European Commission institutions. More than 70 complaints have already been received, and information continues to flow.
Halali: "Israeli students are careful not to converse with each other in Hebrew. Jewish students no longer wear necklaces with a Star of David."
Emma Halali, Photo: Shahar Azran
Ghent University in Belgium adopted a more radical approach. Their Faculty of Conflict Studies and Development issued a statement unilaterally condemning Israel, claiming that "it is the regime that is responsible for the escalation of violence. Statements now condemning Hamas violence demonstrate the same selective blindness to the violence displayed by Israel and to the system that produced Hamas."
Alongside manifestations of anti-Semitism, France also has sympathy for Israel. Omar from Paris says that many non-Jewish friends and co-workers sent him messages of support and solidarity. "It's heartwarming, but there were others too, some that I had to block from my Instagram and Twitter accounts," Omar says.
"There's no doubt that the atmosphere here in Paris is tense. I have a friend at work of Arab descent, a close friend, an educated man, very spiritual. We always talked about everything, but this time I feel like things have changed. He unequivocally condemned the October 7 attack, but also started talking to me about how Israel made a mistake in strengthening Hamas, and how Israel was allegedly reaping what it sowed."
The rise in numbers, as well as the feelings of Omar, Emma and many others, worry not only the authorities in France, but across the continent and overseas. Last week, a large group of special envoys from a number of countries charged with fighting anti-Semitism gathered in Paris, including the special US envoy to the issue, Deborah Lipstadt. The conference was scheduled months ago, but naturally dealt with the sharp rise in anti-Semitism in Europe, and also in the United States, after the deadly attack by Hamas.
The conference was opened by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, who since her first appointment to the position five years ago has devoted considerable efforts to promoting the war on anti-Semitism, especially in the field of education.
"Following the massacres, we saw the rise of a new wave of anti-Semitism, which unfortunately bears all the characteristics unique to our time," Azoulay warned in her remarks at the conference. "The barbarism of Islamist terrorism is compounded by the means of disinformation and unbridled expressions of orchestrated hate campaigns, carried on the new media available to the general public. This is a real earthquake that calls for a reexamination of the methods of combating anti-Semitism."
School guards
On Friday evening, I spoke with a Jewish family attending Shabbat services at a synagogue on the right bank of Paris. Members of this family are members of the congregation, but do not attend services regularly. Since October 7, they have been coming to synagogue every Friday night to share with other friends and family the collective pain over what happened in Israel, as well as the fears at home.
Israeli lawyer Elad Danoch at an event on behalf of the abductees in France, photo: AP
The men in the family remove the kippah from their heads as soon as they leave the synagogue compound, but this is certainly nothing new. The instruction not to gather outside after the end of prayers has also been known to them for years. At the end of the sermon this time, the rabbi reminded them to be extra cautious, but what else can be done beyond the measures taken in Paris since the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and the Hyper Kosher supermarket?
A father of a daughter at a Jewish school tells us: "Every morning, when I bring her there, I'm tense. There is organized security outside, so I don't think they are in danger. The police take this matter seriously enough, but that doesn't prevent the concerns, perhaps quite the opposite. Why does a 7-year-old need to see guards at the entrance to her school?"
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