A fourfold increase in anti-Semitic acts in Paris and its surrounding area. This is the worrying observation delivered this Thursday morning by the prefect of police (PP) of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, interviewed on Franceinfo. “From October 7 (day of the Hamas terrorist attack) it completely exploded, admitted the boss of the Parisian police. There were more than 500 anti-Semitic acts in the first ten months of 2004, that's times 4 compared to the first months of the year 2023.” In November 2023, in the wake of October 7, 375 anti-Semitic acts had already been recorded in the Paris metropolitan area, according to figures from the prefecture.
Asked this Thursday to clarify what the notion of “anti-Semitic act” covered, Laurent Nuñez specified that it was “insults, provocations, tags and physical violence, which are more limited in number”. “Anti-Semitic acts are recorded very rigorously,” insisted the police prefect.
This assessment drawn up by the authorities comes the day after a demonstration which brought together several thousand people in Paris to denounce the holding of the controversial “Israel is Forever” gala in the French capital in the evening. An event in support of Israel organized by several far-right personalities and which had not been banned by the police headquarters.
The location of this gala had been kept secret, but the possible intervention of Bezalel Smotrich, who on Monday promised an annexation in 2025 by Israel of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, sparked a wave of anger among the demonstrators. On Wednesday evening, McDonald's – one of which was targeted by demonstrators who damaged its window – and a Carrefour store had lowered their iron shutters with customers inside.
This Thursday, Laurent Nuñez did not provide an accounting report of any arrests made in the evening. “We negotiated an itinerary which was respected,” said the Parisian police boss.
Tensions which arise on the eve, this Thursday, of the Nations League football match between France and Israel scheduled at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, considered “high risk” by the French authorities after the anti-Semitic attacks occurred last week in the Dutch capital.
For the match, in the presence of President Emmanuel Macron, the French authorities have planned an “extremely reinforced”, “very unusual” system for a match of this scale. A total of 4,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized, and, unusually, in the stadium, as well as on public transport and throughout Paris. Around 1,600 security officers will be at the Stade de France and RAID, the elite unit of the national police, is committed to the security of the Israel team. “There are no clear threats but it remains a high-risk match,” Laurent Nuñez conceded this Thursday.
