Macron, French Jews call for action after antisemitic rape of 12-year-old girl

French President Emmanuel Macron  called on Education Minister Nicole Belloubet "to organize a discussion in all schools on the fight against antisemitism and racism, to prevent hate speech with serious consequences from infiltrating schools."

Belloubet said on social media that the crime against the victim was abominable, and the response to such "barbarism" was "Justice, School, Republic."  

French Jewish groups expressed outrage on Tuesday following reports that a 12-year-old girl was raped because she was Jewish.

Collectif Nous Vivrons, an activist group, called for protests on Wednesday in response to a Le Parisien report that boys aged 12, 13, and 14 were arrested for beating and gang-raping the victim last Saturday because she had concealed her religion from her ex-boyfriend, one of the suspects.

“Why aren’t you already on the street?” asked the activist group. “Because you have become accustomed to antisemitic crimes! When will you wake up?”

French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia blamed radical-left parties for the rise in antisemitism in the country in a statement from the Conference of European Rabbis on Wednesday. He lambasted the Left for denying the atrocities of October 7, adding that “instead of calming the situation on the streets, it incites antisemitism, which leads to cases like the current rape affair.”

Uptick in antisemitism in france

“This shocking case joins a long line of violent cases experienced by French Jews in recent months. We are witnessing an alarming increase in the rate of manifestations of antisemitism throughout France. If, in a normal year, we were used to seeing about 400 cases of violence against Jews, in just the three months after October, we witnessed almost 1,600 cases,” said Korsia. “Jews are persecuted, raped, beaten, ostracized, and marked. We are no longer just fighting for the legitimacy of the State of Israel to protect its security; we are fighting for the protection of Jews around the world.”

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) on Wednesday urged authorities to shed more light on the circumstances and antisemitic motivation. The European Jewish Congress echoed the calls for more information and said that their “thoughts are with the victim and her family.”

The Union of Jewish Students in France also offered support and said on X that “hatred of Israel leads to unsustainable antisemitic violence. Those who deny it are accountable for it.”

According to Le Parisien, investigators found antisemitic comments and a picture of a burning Israeli flag on the ex-boyfriend’s cell phone. A second minor allegedly told police that he beat the girl because she made negative remarks about “Palestine.”

Fondation des Femmes said on social media on Wednesday that the sexist and antisemitic crime shook the women’s rights organization.

“Rape is a tool of destruction in the service of hatred, and when children rape children, it is society as a whole that must ask itself the question of its responsibility in the face of violence, antisemitism, and misogyny at home,” said the foundation. 

Reuters contributed to this report.