‘There used to be more concern about Jean-Marie Le Pen. Today, it’s about Jean-Luc Mélenchon’
Nine out of ten (91 percent) Jewish students in French institutions of higher educations say they have suffered antisemitism at one point, according to a new survey. For the most part this was usually in the form of insults, jokes or Nazi chants but sometimes included physical assault.
Some 77 per cent of Jewish students believe that antisemitism is “widespread” in French universities, according to a poll canvassing a representative sample of 237 Jewish students and 802 students of all backgrounds published in Le Parisien newspaper Friday.
It indicates that more Jewish students fear antisemitism from the far left (83 percent) than from the far right (63 percent). One of the pollsters pointed out that “there used to be more concern about Jean-Marie Le Pen. Today, it’s about Jean-Luc Mélenchon.”
The results of the survey are consistent with a similar one published in 2019.
The president of France’s Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) Samuel Lejoyeux said that “for several years there has been a very worrying constant. Hatred of Israel, with which the Jews of France are too often automatically associated, is undoubtedly the most powerful driver of anti-Semitism today.” He cited as an example a graffiti engraved on Paris 8 University in Saint-Denis: “Long live Palestine. Return to 39-45.”
“Anti-Jewish hostility doesn’t come from any one community or from Muslims above all,” said Philippe Schmidt of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, citing “far-left propaganda” as “a bigger issue.”
Source : i24 News
