The idea behind the march against anti-Semitism this Sunday in Paris was clear. Political figures and French people from all backgrounds would come together to speak out arm in arm against the boom in anti-Semitic incidents in France. Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the bloody war that Israel subsequently started in Gaza, the country has more than 1,100 “anti-Semitic acts” registered – three times as many as in all of 2022.
To make the march as neutral and non-political as possible, only one banner would be used: a huge white cloth with the text “for the Republic, against anti-Semitism”. Signs and flags of political parties or of Israel and Palestine were banned – only the French tricolor would fly.
On Sunday, the mission seemed successful at first glance: prominent politicians, from Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, and some 105,000 others walked in relative calm through a rainy Paris, encouraged by Parisians flying French flags from their lower balconies and sing along with the Marseillaise. But there are also protest signs sticking out of the crowd. There are a number of Israeli flags on display – which quickly disappear into bags when one of the many armed to the teeth officers approaches. A woman walks with a Star of David pinned on.
Politics never far away
And everyone present – the vast majority of whom are older Parisians – seems to have a political reason for marching. When asked about the reason for attendance, people first mention things like “showing unity” and “celebrating the values of the republic.” But then they start talking about party politics. For example, retiree Marion Friedman (67) says that she is running to speak out against “the danger posed by Islamism (political Islam, ed.)” which she believes is being fueled by the radical left party LFI. When a group of parliamentarians from the radical right-wing party Rassemblement National arrive, a number of people rush away. “We shouldn’t walk next to RN,” says one of them.
It is because politics is never far away in France, but also because the political parties did everything they could last week to make the neutral anti-Semitism march political. It started with the Rassemblement National being one of the first parties to loudly announce that it would be present.
This party has traditionally been known as anti-Semitic, due to controversial statements by party prominents such as founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who on several occasions downplayed the Holocaust. For his successor and daughter Marine Le Pen, participation is a way to show that she has left this history far behind her. She can also indirectly criticize Muslims – the core of her political struggle – because most anti-Semitic acts in recent weeks seem to come from Islamic sources. “We do not accept the anti-Semitism that affects our Jewish compatriots, and we fight Islamic fundamentalism,” she wrote before the march on X.
The registration of RN led to a discussion in French politics about whether people wanted to run alongside RN politicians, after which most parties concluded that the fight against anti-Semitism was more important. But as so often happens, the radical left party LFI decided differently. This party refused to participate due to the presence of RN. This seems to play a role in the fact that the party wants to show in everything it does that it is on the side of Palestine in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Unconditional support
In recent weeks, LFI parliamentarians have refused to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization and party prominent Jean-Luc Mélenchon has come under fire several times for criticizing people who support Israel. For example, he stated that parliament speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet “camped in Tel Aviv to encourage the massacre” during her visit to the country. This week he called visitors to the anti-Semitism march “the friends of unconditional support for massacres.”
The political strategies mean that while RN continues to normalize – something Le Pen has been working hard on for years – people mainly look to LFI when it comes to anti-Semitism. For example, Jewish Brigitte (50, she does not want to share her surname, like most French Jews recently) states that LFI parliamentarians are “co-responsible for the hatred we experience.” “They refuse to recognize that anti-Semitism now comes from Islamic sources.” Friedman also states that LFI is partly responsible for the increased hatred. “It is an electoral strategy to please immigrants.”
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