Hervé Gerbi, president of the Crif (representative council of Jewish institutions in France) of Grenoble-Dauphiné, is worried about the increase in anti-Semitic acts in the Grenoble area since the October 7 attacks perpetrated by Hamas and the war that then broke out between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza.
The number of anti-Semitic acts recorded in France almost quadrupled in 2023, to 1,676 compared to 436 in 2022, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Anti-Semitism is affecting younger generations
Hervé Gerbi emphasizes that anti-Semitism is affecting the younger generations and he gives an example: “Ten days ago, a 13-year-old boy showed up in front of the Jewish school in Grenoble and pointed an imitation weapon at the front door. He was filmed by the video surveillance camera. He was summoned before the prosecutor’s delegate. He and his parents refused a reparation measure that was offered to them as an alternative to a trial. He would have met a member of Crif to have a discussion, because I believe in pedagogy against ignorance. . But he refused, so he will be tried in the children’s court at the beginning of June.” specifies Hervé Gerbi, who is also a lawyer.
And he asks himself: “It’s a gesture that shows very well the climate we are in. I don’t know if at 13 we can have hatred. On the other hand, at 13, we are often the bearer of what we hear around “We must find a way to prevent our 13-year-olds from having anything else to do than come and send a message to the Jewish community.”
Hervé Gerbi shows us numerous photos taken in the Grenoble area of anti-Semitic tags. We can read several times inscriptions like: “death to the Jews” such as we saw in the 1930s. There is also this photo of a small wooden train, a game for children in the Jardin des Dauphins in Grenoble, on which we wrote: “Auschwitz” with a number reminiscent of the one tattooed on the arms of the deportees.
@Crif Grenoble-Dauphiné
“Each time the Crif makes a report to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. I also wrote to the mayor of Grenoble so that these tags are erased as quickly as possible. But often, they reappear.” deplores Hervé Gerbi who therefore launches an appeal to the Prefect of Isère, while this Tuesday on the Grenoble campus, around a hundred demonstrators set up tents in front of the Weil lecture hall to symbolize the life of Gazans under Israeli bombs.
For the organization of local meetings against anti-Semitism
“We must organize meetings locally against anti-Semitism, like those that the government launched on Monday May 6 in Paris. Elected officials, justice, the Rectorate, associations, we must meet together around a table to put not a policy of proximity to fight against anti-Semitism We must all come together to say: do we agree on the observation of the dangerous increase in these anti-Semitic acts?
Crif deplores that barriers are being broken under the guise of freedom of expression and Hervé Gerbi evokes, to illustrate his point, a post on Facebook from a former elected official in opposition to the mayor of Allevard, Sidney Rebboah, of Jewish origin. The former elected official in question who resigned last January, Jean-Luc Mollard, published a drawing, entitled “cooking a steak”. with mentions: rare, medium, cooked, very cooked and next to the last image of the burnt steak, the name of the mayor is written.
Investigation for incitement to hatred
For Sidney Rebboah, this is an anti-Semitic act because it refers to crematoria. “I’ll complain” he told us. “It’s intolerable, I can’t let this go”
For the author of the post, on the other hand, it’s humor. “It’s a joke about François Fillon that I found on the internet.” explains Jean-Luc Mollard. “I changed the name of François Fillon to that of Sidney Rebboah. For me, this means that in politics, he is toast, like Fillon with the Pénélope Gate. Because Mr. Rebboah increased the taxes of Allevardins by 15%. . But since I see that my joke falls flat, I apologize.” while regretting that freedom of expression is being undermined “while in 2015: we were all Charlie” regrets the former elected official who repeats that he is not anti-Semitic.
As for the Grenoble Public Prosecutor’s Office, it opened an investigation for incitement to hatred, entrusted to the research brigade of the Meylan gendarmerie.
