'Death to Israel': French universities saw uptick in antisemitic violence after Oct.7

France's Committee on Culture, Education, Communication and Sport, under Pierre-Antoine Levi and Bernard Fialaire, commissioned a report on antisemitism at French universities, which was released on Wednesday.

The report, titled “Antisemitism in Higher Education'' was carried out by Pierre-Antoine Levi and Bernard Fialaire, and presented findings on the prevalence of antisemitism and the response by local and public authorities. 

The report detailed how “The events of 7 October and their aftermath have revealed the persistence of latent antisemitism in French higher education institutions, a very worrying collective dynamic which is fostering a climate of diffuse antisemitism which is causing difficulties for many Jewish students.” 

The researchers said they were “alarmed by the resurgence, within many French institutions, of a climate of antisemitism whose modes of expression have evolved under the effect of the ideological polarization associated with student mobilizations in favor of Palestine.”

Additionally, the report acknowledged that isolated incidents of antisemitism have never gone away, especially among the far-right demographic, the “reactivation of antisemitism in higher education has been part of an extremely worrying collective dynamic for several months, fueled by an ideology that now also belongs to the far left of the political spectrum.”

“While taking advantage of the progress made in the fight against other forms of violence and discrimination that affect students, particularly sexist and sexual violence,” the report states “this fight must take into account the irreducible specificity of antisemitism, which constitutes the oldest of identity-based hostilities.”

The state of antisemitism in French higher education

The report begins by stating that antisemitism in higher education in France has been significantly underestimated and that it has sharply increased since Oct 7, both in universities and wider French society in general.

Since October 7, 67 incidents of antisemitism have been recorded in French Universities, twice the amount recorded in the entire 2022-2023 academic year.

These include the discovery of antisemitic inscriptions and swastikas at the University of University of Lyon and the University of Caen, the discovery of antisemitic graffiti ("Death to Israel, death to the Jews," "Death in hell suits them so well") in the library of the University of Paris 8, and antisemitic defacement at Nantes University. 

The President of Strasbourg University, Michel Deneken, said “Since October 7, verbal and physical violence has crystallized.”

Deneken also said that antisemitic graffiti was a “daily" occurrence at Strasbourg University during January 2024.

The Antisemitic incidents recorded range from hostile language to physical assault, online bullying, and the dissemination of insulting messages in chat groups. The report also mentions antisemitic harassment and ostracization of Jewish students, including “jostling in the corridors, changing seats in lecture halls and classrooms, repeating jokes based on antisemitic clichés or isolating certain students when forming working groups to prepare a presentation.”

In November 2023, the Faculty of Health at Toulouse-III-Paul-Sabatier University reported that a swastika was found on a student's personal belongings. In March 2024, at Sciences Po Paris, pro-Palestinian demonstrators denied access to a lecture theater to a Jewish student.

In January 2024, at the University of Strasbourg, three Jewish students, who were putting up posters calling for the release of Hamas hostages bearing the words "no to antisemitism", were verbally threatened then beaten and knocked to the ground by six people shouting "Zionist fascists".

The report says that some incidents of aggression are “all the more insidious because they are difficult to identify and characterize.” 

The report also acknowledges gaps between the number of recorded incidents and the likely number that have occurred in reality: “The large gap between the reports [of 67 incidents] and the results of the 28 September 2023 IFOP study [carried out in conjunction with Union of Jewish Students of France], according to which 9 out of 10 Jewish students have already been confronted with an anti-Semitic act, calls for caution.”

The IFOP survey also found that of this, 91%, 7% experienced physical aggression, 43% attacks concerning Israel (either verbal threats or physical assaults), and 45% experienced antisemitic insults.

The National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) calls this the "dark figure" of antisemitism due to a phenomenon of under-reporting, meaning most figures are probably significantly lower than they should be. 

In the CNCDH 2023 Report on the fight against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, released on 27 June 2024, the President of the CNCDH, Jean-Marie Burgubur, lamented the French government’s “wait-and-see” approach to antisemitism while “anti-Semitic acts exploded in the country following October 7.”

The French state, he said, “should have mobilized the State apparatus immediately by accelerating the implementation of the National Plan to Combat Racism, Antisemitism and Discrimination adopted by Elisabeth Borne in early 2023.”

Gray areas

The higher-education report continues by saying that the underestimation may be due to “gray areas” where antisemitism is not clear-cut.

It may also be due to the lackluster response from universities, whose “presidents felt helpless to proceed with the legal qualification of certain acts, and in particular, in the context of student mobilizations, to distinguish between legitimate political criticism of the Israeli government, protected by freedom of expression, and anti-Semitic statements constituting offenses punishable by criminal law.”

The report pays particular attention to this blurring of lines between what constitutes anti-Zionism and legitimate criticism of Israel and what constitutes antisemitism.

“Several leaders have overall regretted feeling caught between two opposing accusations, one of criminalizing political action, the other of not ensuring respect for fundamental republican principles,” the report noted.

When lines are crossed

The report says that when anti-Israel rhetoric “slips into a radical questioning of the very existence of the Israeli state” or when “support for the Palestinian cause turns into an apology for terrorism,” such things constitute antisemitism.

This also includes slogans used during campus occupations, such as "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," or calls for an intifada, as well as the use of the red hands symbol.

In general, the reporters established that the notion of “anti-Zionism can be used in universities as a way to disguise expressions of genuine antisemitism.”

The report labels the reporting system for incidents of antisemitism “ineffective.” The researchers were surprised to find a lack of data in most institutions, which they attribute to  “a lack of a sufficiently robust reporting and statistical monitoring system.”

Such “structural weaknesses” include a lack of a consolidated legislative basis, which gives rise to “heterogeneous practices”; in other words, there is no unified policy on what constitutes antisemitism and what constitutes a response; and also “a lack of trust on the part of victims and witnesses.”

This was reflected in the IFOP story, which showed the disconnect in what Jews and non-Jews consider antisemitic: 77% of Jewish students considered that antisemitism was widespread in higher education. In comparison, only 28% of non-Jewish students agreed. 

Right to expression, academic freedom

The next section of the report focuses on the challenge of ideological polarization and cultural antisemitism, given that it is hard for universities to control heterogeneous principles in higher education students. 

The report says that universities must deconstruct stereotypes to prevent abuses.

“While the University traditionally had no direct role to play in terms of secular and civic openness of students [unlike in primary and secondary education], the state of antisemitism now forces them to do so, which constitutes a real challenge.”

The report acknowledges the careful balance between encouraging autonomy of institutions and academic freedom and the eradication of a culture of abuse and hate.

University-level solutions

According to the report, Higher education institutions, in coordination with the Education Ministry, have been working on a solution for several years. This includes implementing a “wide range of awareness-raising actions in the fight against racism and antisemitism.”

However, the report states that such measures, though admirable, have so far been inadequate due to the lack of sufficient systematization and targeting” as most of the awareness activity does not reach the intended audience. Essentially, short of forcing certain students to attend events, the demographic of the anti-antisemitism educational events will mostly be people already aligned with these views.

“The most often preferred open-access event format does not allow reaching the audiences for whom they are primarily intended,” the report says.

By nature of benign centers of research and teaching, universities should be at the center of “deconstructing the mechanisms underlying anti-Semitic stereotypes,” the report continues. However, while certain research centers on Jews and antisemitism do exist, the reporters “deplore the recent disappearance of the department of Jewish and Hebrew studies at the University of Paris.”

Regarding solutions, the report says that educational measures may “bear fruit in the long term.”

However, in the short term, it will not be effective in combating antisemitism, especially that which is associated with the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza.

As such, the report recommends “the mobilization of the many legal provisions allowing presidents of institutions to limit freedoms of expression and assembly as a preventive measure to ensure respect for public order.”

“A message of absolute firmness must be conveyed to allow all students to be trained, and more generally to restore French republican values to the entire university community.”

Prosecution

“While the number of antisemitic acts measured in higher education institutions is much lower than the reality of the phenomenon,” claims the report, “the number of those prosecuted is even lower.”

Between October 7, 2023, and April 2024, there were only 6 referrals to disciplinary committees and 14 reports to public prosecutors.

This, the report says, is partly due to the diversity of approaches within individual institutions as to whether to respond or not to incidents of antisemitism, especially with smaller incidents such as student behavior or online messaging.

The report states that sanctioning of antisemitism should not be considered “an impossibility” and that all acts that undermine the “proper functioning of the University can and must be pursued, as several institutions already do, by activating the very comprehensive arsenal of legislative and regulatory measures at their disposal.”

“Despite its limitations,” the report claims, “the disciplinary approach is the preferred path to take in punishing antisemitic acts.”

However, due to the length of procedures, the report admits that the criminal justice system can only play a complementary role in punishing antisemitic acts, “which must be activated as a priority to ensure their rapid processing and, where appropriate, be accompanied by precautionary measures to ensure the protection of victims.” 

The implementation of disciplinary procedures is also limited, the report says, due to the challenge of obtaining material evidence to support the case, given most institutions lack investigative power and the process of obtaining such evidence is relatively slow.

The report recommends that the disciplinary procedure, “historically designed to resolve cases of academic fraud, is now adapted to acts of violence, discrimination, and hatred occurring in institutions.”

The report also states that for such procedures to be successful, there must be more sufficient cooperation between judicial authorities and institutions.

The 11 recommendations 

The report gives 11 recommendations for moving forward to combat the phenomenon of antisemitism at universities in France.

Recommendation 1: Streamline the legislative framework for reporting systems, by codifying the obligations of universities in terms of detecting antisemitic acts.

Recommendation 2: Encourage the creation of vice-presidents entirely dedicated to combating racism and antisemitism within establishments. 

Recommendation 3: Update legal resources and guides within institutions to include updated information regarding the detection of acts of antisemitism, specifying the new forms taken by antisemitic expression, particularly concerning the situation in Gaza.

Recommendation 4: the adoption of the IHRA operational definition of antisemitism in universities, in accordance with the resolution adopted by the French Senate on October 5, 2021.

Recommendation 5: To address the lack of trust of victims, by adapting and diversifying reporting processes by involving community actors, professionalizing listening systems and strengthening confidentiality guarantees.

Recommendation 6: Target student awareness measures around key moments in the academic year, such as time of entry into higher education, the application for approval to join student associations and before participation in certain student life events.

Recommendation 7: The training of other stakeholders in institutions (such as management teams and administrative executives) on the operational challenges of combating antisemitism.

Recommendation 8: Integrate the fight against antisemitism into training courses by strengthening the student bonus.

Recommendation 9: “Consolidate the place of knowledge in the fight against antisemitism by preserving Jewish and Hebrew studies departments and establishing a public inter-university research and training structure dedicated to the fight against racism and antisemitism.”

Recommendation 10: Adapt the disciplinary procedure system to include sanctioning of antisemitic acts, and specifying the list of acts that would trigger such disciplinary actions.

Recommendation 11: Improve the monitoring of reports made under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.