“The increase in acts of anti-Semitism is quite spectacular […]today the figures I have as of November 30, we were at nearly 1,500 incidents of anti-Semitism,” she declared on Sunday in an interview with Europe 1/Les Échos/CNews, specifying the overall figures for 2024 will be published by the Ministry of the Interior.
According to Aurore Bergé, “most of these facts are not just insults, they are acts of direct attacks on people, either because they are Jewish, or because we think that 'they are'. According to its services, personal attacks represent 63% of the incidents recorded.
In 2023, according to data from Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France) communicated in January, the number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the country had quadrupled over one year, with 1,676 cases. “Because now, the simple fact of defending clear, republican positions, of recalling that on October 7, there were first of all terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas, of quite simply supporting the hostage families […] makes you a potential target of anti-Semitic attacks,” the minister said.
The university as a priority project
Aurore Bergé confirmed the relaunch of the conference to combat anti-Semitism, which was launched in May last year, with a first meeting set, according to her ministry, for “next February 13, which marks the anniversary of the death of Ilan Halimi” in 2006.
She considered that the “priority project” was that of “the university”. Referring to “absolutely intolerable and unbearable facts”, “insults”, “attempts at intimidation”, reported “almost on a daily basis in universities or in major schools”, she affirmed: “I intend that they can be counted “.
