Two thirds of French people think that anti-Semitism is on the rise in France, despite recently released government statistics illustrating a downturn.

Among the 1,005 people polled for the weekly magazine Paris Match on 2 and 3 March, 64 percent said they think the problem has increased, with more marginally women than men recognising the recent upsurge in anti-Jewish hatred.

This view “is particularly strong among sympathizers of the extreme-right Front National party and voters without any sectarian sympathy,” the authoritative polling institute Ifop said.

“On the contrary, the more the people are educated the more they are expressing doubts about the rise,” an Ifop spokesman said.

Around 600,000 Jews live in France.

More attacks

The poll was conducted before the latest attacks against young Jews in Sarcelles, a Paris suburb, last week, but after the gruesome torture and murder of Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old French Jew, which has shaken France.

Meanwhile, new anti-Semitic acts were reported earlier this week in the Lyon area, in southern France. A Jewish student was attacked, beaten and hit in the face while walking to his school on Monday. Four minors have been arrested and charged with violence and insults with anti-Semitic character. Police said some of the aggressors are studying in the same school as their victim.

According to CRIF, the umbrella group for Jewish organisations in France, more anti-Semitic acts were perpetrated in the nearby city of Villeurbanne. The city’s synagogue received a letter threatening with an attack while the monitoring camera of a Jewish religious school was smashed.

A 22-year-old suspect has been arrested by police. CRIF also reported that Jewish parents have lodge complaints against the racketing of their children in a Villeurbanne school.

Statistics challenged

Joel Mergui, the recently elected President of the Paris Consistoire, the main umbrella group representing religious associations, has tried to put the official drop in anti-Semitism acts in 2005 in perspective. He stressed that the Sarcelles attacks against young Jews occured despite the mobilization against racism and anti-Semitism which followed Ilan Halimi’s murder.

“Figures show a drop of the number of anti-Semitic acts but they must be put in perspective,” he told Agence France Presse. “More and more people do not lodge a complaint and are disappointed by justice rulings,” he said.

“It is concerning. Anti-Semitism is taking root and is trivializing in the society.”

“Since the start of the intifada in 2000 communal leaders have linked anti-Semitism to the Middle East situation, but this represents a return to a basic anti-Semitism, where Jewish people are assumed to be rich,” Mergui said.

The president added that he believed the demonstration in Paris two weeks ago to protest Ilan Halimi’s brutal murder was “not a big success.”

Protest demonstration against the murder of 23-year-old French Jewish Ilan Halimi on 26 February in Paris.   AFP Copyright 2006

“Political parties and state bodies were mobilized but not the entire society,” he stressed.

According to the organisers, 200,000 people marched through the streets of Paris on 26 February but police put the figure at 30,000 while an anti-racist organisation counted 80,000.

“Jews are very attached to France which has the largest community in Europe. But today they are questioning their future. Young people come to see us and ask: ‘when will you tell us to leave?’,” he said.

“The fact that the French state is totally with us in this fight against anti-Semitism just help us to calm the community.”