This Thursday, December 26, 2024, the journalist shared extracts from anti-Semitic and insulting messages received on her social networks after sharing a story on the Jewish holiday.
Cancer and pregnancy: Virgilia Hess justifies the media coverage of her situation © BFMTV
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Hate online. Virgilia Hess revealed, this Thursday, December 26, 2024, extracts from anti-Semitic messages received on her Instagram account. The BFMTV weather presenter had posted a story a few hours earlier in which she wished her subscribers a happy Hanukkah (Jewish holiday, editor's note), delighting in the sweets and donuts made for the occasion.
“I unsubscribe, you dirty genocidaire”
While the video was mostly well-received, it also sparked malicious reactions, as reported by Virgilia Hess. “'I didn't know you were a Zionist, plus I fucking felt sorry for you with your cancer. Tchao, I'm unsubscribing, you dirty genocidaire, you can die of your cancer (Virgilia Hess announced that she had cancer in February 2023, editor's note). These are the kind of messages we can receive at the dawn of 2025 when we post a Hanukkah story on Instagram (story that I am sharing here, so you can see)“, she said on X. “And again I corrected the spelling mistakes and did not give you all the Palestinian flags that followed. Sad France“, she commented in reference to the war which has been going on since October 7, 2023 between Israel and Hamas.
READ ALSO: “Since October 7, I can no longer remain silent”: Virgilia Hess, BFMTV weather presenter, “target of insulting messages of an anti-Semitic nature”
In May 2024, Virgilia Hess had already expressed concern about the “resurgence of anti-Semitism” in France, which had earned her a flood of hateful messages, some associating her message with a position in favor of Benjamin Netanyahu.
“So being committed to anti-Semitism means that I support what is happening in Israel or that I am for Netanyahu?“, she had falsely questioned. “When did I say that I was insensitive to what Palestinian civilians were going through? I speak out about anti-Semitism on French soil and in the USA in this thread, it's crazy to think that because being Jewish and confronted with anti-Semitism, that prevents me from also being heartbroken for the victims!“, she had thus finished her clarification.
In this deleterious climate, the Society of Journalists of BFMTV was keen to provide its support to Virgilia Hess in a press release posted on May 29, 2024 onOur colleague and sister Virgilia Hess has been the target for several days of insulting messages of an anti-Semitic nature, and death threats, following a post on social networks in which she was concerned about the virulence of the anti-Semitism. These insults and threats are unbearable and unacceptable. The SDJ of BFMTV strongly condemns them and wishes to assure Virgila of all its support.”
