Well, it is common among the Orthodox in Eastern Europe to call Jews 'Christ killers,' Sources to follow. and anti-Jewish attitudes persist throughout Europe.
From:
Antisemitism in Europe - Wikipedia
Despite the fact that a large majority of French people have favorable attitudes towards Jews,
[86] acts of anti-Jewish violence, property destruction, and
racist language are a serious cause for concern.
[87] A majority of reported
hate crimes in France are antisemitic hate crimes.
[88] According to French Prime Minister
Manuel Valls, "We have the old anti-Semitism ... that comes from the extreme right, but [a] new anti-Semitism comes from the difficult neighborhoods, from immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa."
[89] The most intense acts of antisemitism are perpetrated by Muslims of
Arab or
African heritage.
[90]
According to a 2006 poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, 71% of French Muslims have positive views of Jews, the highest percentage in the world.
[91] According to the National Advisory Committee on Human Rights, antisemitic acts account for a majority— 72% in all in 2003— of racist acts in France.
[92] 40% of racist violence perpetrated in France in 2013 targeted the Jewish minority, despite the fact that Jews represent less than 1% of the French population.
[93]
With the start of the
Second Intifada, antisemitic incidents increased in France. In 2002, the
Commission nationale consultative des droits de l'homme (Human Rights Commission) reported six times more antisemitic incidents than in 2001 (193 incidents in 2002). The commission's statistics showed that antisemitic acts constituted 62% of all racist acts in the country (compared to 45% in 2001 and 80% in 2000). The report documented 313 violent acts against people or property, including 38 injuries and the murder of someone with
Maghrebin origins by
far right skinheads.
[94]
About 7,000 French Jews moved to Israel in 2014. This was 1% of the entire French Jewish population and a record number since World War II.
[95] Conversations within the European Jewish community indicate that antisemitic attacks in France are the impetus for the high emigration figures.
[96] Valls expressed his concern about the trend: "If 100,000 French people of Spanish origin were to leave, I would never say that France is not France anymore. But if 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure."
[89] The trend of increased emigration continued into 2015 due to a rise in assaults and intimidation by Muslim extremists.
[97]
21st century incidents[edit]
Ilan Halimi (1982 - 13 February 2006) was a young
French Jew (of
Moroccan parentage
[98][99]) kidnapped on 21 January 2006 by a group of youth called
the Gang of Barbarians and subsequently tortured to death over a period of three weeks. The murder, amongst whose motives authorities include antisemitism, incited a public outcry in a France already marked by intense public controversy about the role of children of immigrants in its society.
On 19 March 2012, Mohammed Merah
shot and killed three Jewish children and a rabbi at the Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse, France.
[100] He was later killed during a raid by the French police on his house.
[101] Merah was also inspired by al-Qaeda. Following the murders, the Ozar Hatorah school was targeted by antisemitic hate mail and calls.
[102]
In July 2012, a French Jewish teenager wearing a "distinctive religious symbol" was the victim of a violent antisemitic attack on a train travelling between Toulouse and Lyon. The teen was first verbally harassed and later beaten up by two assailants. The French Jewish umbrella group,
CRIF, called the attack "another development in the worrying trend of antisemitism in our country."
[103]
Another incident in July 2012 dealt with the vandalism of the synagogue of
Noisy-le-Grand of the
Seine-Saint-Denis district in
Paris. The synagogue was vandalized three times in a ten-day period. Prayer books and shawls were thrown on the floor, windows were shattered, drawers were ransacked, and vandalized the walls, tables, clocks, and floors. The authorities were alerted of the incidents by the Bureau National de Vigilance Contr L’Antisemtisme (BNVCA), a French antisemitism watchdog group, which called for more measures to be taken to prevent future hate crimes. BNVCA President Sammy Ghozlan stated that, "Despite the measures taken, things persist, and I think that we need additional legislation, because the Jewish community is annoyed."
[104]
In June 2014, Following the threats facing Jews in France, particularly arising from French-born jihadists returning after fighting in the civil war in Syria, French President Francois Hollande met with an international delegation of Jewish leaders. The French president outlined steps that have been taken to protect the Jewish community, especially Jewish schools, from attacks and growing antisemitism. He was quoted saying that: "We would like to set an example to the world in fighting anti-Semitism," he said, but conceded the current situation — following a murderous attack by a French-born terrorist in Belgium — bespoke a "new, heavy context.
[105]"