Protest against anti-Semitism in Paris
Protest against anti-Semitism in ParisReuters

Thousands of people, some carrying banners proclaiming “That's enough”, took to the streets of the French capital Tuesday evening to protest a spate of recent anti-Semitic attacks, including the daubing of swastikas on nearly 100 graves in a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, AFP reported.

The Paris rally, in the city's central Place de la Republique, was one of about 70 staged nationwide Tuesday in response to a surge in anti-Semitic hate crimes which have triggered a deluge of outrage in France and Israel.

18 political parties urged citizens to attend the protests, with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and more than half his cabinet attending the rally in Paris.

Two former presidents, Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, also turned up. Parliament suspended its work for several hours to allow MPs to attend the rally, while religious leaders met with the interior minister to affirm their unity, noted AFP.

Speaking on television Philippe said it was necessary to punish those who "because of ideology, because they think it's an easy option, because of ignorance or hostility call into question what we are -- a diverse but proud people".

Earlier in the day, President Emmanuel Macron also promised to crack down on hate crimes when inspecting a cemetery in Quatzenheim in the Alsace region near Germany where 96 Jewish tombstones were spray-painted with blue and yellow swastikas the previous night.

"We shall act, we shall pass laws, we shall punish," Macron told Jewish leaders as he toured the cemetery.

"Those who did this are not worthy of the Republic," he said, later placing a white rose on a tombstone commemorating Jews deported to Germany during World War II.

Another grave bore the words "Elsassisches Schwarzen Wolfe" ("Black Alsatian Wolves), a separatist group with links to neo-Nazis in the 1970s.

It was the second recent case of extensive cemetery desecration in the region. In December, nearly 40 graves as well as a monument to Holocaust victims were vandalized in Herrlisheim, about a half-hour drive from Quatzenheim.

Tuesday’s incident is just the latest in a series of recent anti-Semitic attacks. Just last week, a memorial in Paris to Ilan Halimi, a French-born Moroccan Jewish man who was murdered in 2006, was desecrated.

Twice last week, swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti were found at multiple locations in Paris, including the window of a bagel shop and mailboxes which featured the portrait of French politician and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil.

The French interior minister said last week that the number of anti-Jewish offences reported to police surged 74 percent last year, to 541 up from 311 in 2017, after two years of declines.

Macron last week condemned an "unacceptable increase" in anti-Semitic vandalism and hate speech.

"Anti-Semitism is a repudiation of the Republic, in the same way that attacking elected officials or institutions is a repudiation of the Republic," Macron told ministers at a cabinet meeting.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the anti-Semitic vandalism, calling anti-Semitism an “epidemic”.

Meanwhile, Aliyah and Integration Minister Yoav Galant on Tuesday urged French Jews to "come home" to Israel.

Galant tweeted that the vandalism at the Jewish cemetery was “reminiscent of dark days in the history of the Jewish people.”

“Last week I visited the French Jewish community, which faces anti-Semitic attacks and a process of assimilation. The State of Israel is the protected national home for the Jews of the world. I strongly condemn the anti-Semitism in France and call on [its] Jews - come home, immigrate to Israel,” he added.