The French president Emmanuel Macron during the Council of Ministers he denounced “the plague of anti-Semitism” after the rape of a twelve-year-old Jewish girl in Courbevoie. The head of state, according to his entourage, also invited “a moment of discussion” on racism and anti-Semitism to be organized in schools in the next few days, so that “hate speech which leads to serious consequences does not infiltrate” educational institutions.
The alleged attackers are 3 teenagers between 12 and 14 years old. Le Parisien reports it. According to the newspaper, the girl, accompanied by her parents, reported to the police station in Courbevoie, a suburb of Paris, that she had been raped. She said that she was with a friend of hers when 3 peers, including her ex-boyfriend, also 12 years old, took her to an abandoned hangar and then beat her and insulted her because of her her religion. The victim would then have been raped, always threatened “with death with anti-Semitic phrases”, we learn from investigation sources.
ANSA Agency Bardella: ‘I will respect France’s international commitments’ – News – Ansa.it The far-right prime ministerial candidate underlines: ‘Ukraine must be able to defend itself’ (ANSA) The investigations conducted by the prosecutor’s office made it possible to identify the alleged perpetrators of the violence, who are 12, 13 and 14 years old. The 3 minors would have partially admitted their guilt, claiming to have acted “out of revenge”, claims Le Parisien, explaining that the victim’s ex-boyfriend would have been “very angry because the girl would have hidden from him that she was of the Jewish religion”.
Anti-Semitic phrases and images were found in the boy’s cell phone, including those of a burned Israeli flag. Another of the alleged perpetrators confessed to the police that he had hit the victim because he had used offensive words against Palestine. The victim was taken to a medical-legal center where the gynecological examination confirmed the violence suffered.
Two of the boys were included in the register of suspects for gang rape, death threats, insults and anti-Semitic violence, according to what the Nanterre prosecutor’s office reports, specifying that the third suspect was instead given the status of ”witness” for the rape while he is under investigation for the other two crimes under investigation.
The accusations to which young people have to respond are serious, from sexual violence to death threats, all aggravated by the fact that they were committed in reference to the victim’s belonging to a religion.
Disconcertion in the Jewish community
The three suspects – including the victim’s boyfriend – would have beaten the twelve-year-old by imposing “anal and vaginal penetrations, oral sex, with death threats and anti-Semitic phrases”, specify sources close to the investigation cited by the French press. The teenager is was rescued by firefighters and admitted to the medical-judicial unit of Garches, in the west of Paris.
Consternation among the Jews of France. The president of the central consistory, Elie Korchia, extends his ”support to this young victim, of Jewish religion, who suffered rape and unbearable attacks”. “A sordid and ignoble sexual crime that affects us deeply”, Korchia continues in a tweet while the great rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, says he is “horrified”, denouncing an “unprecedented anti-Semitic wave”.
Also on ”It’s abject, we can’t believe it can happen again”, the mayor deplores for her part
republican from Courbevoie, Jacques Kossowski. Quoted by the France Presse agency, the mayor calls for a ”firm” condemnation of the attackers, ”whatever their age
”. According to official government data, anti-Semitic acts in France increased sharply in the first quarter of 2024, with “366” anti-Jewish hate incidents reported between January and March, up 300% in one year.
In January, the Crif also raised the alarm about the resurgence of anti-Semitism, which multiplied by four in a year (from 436 anti-Semitic acts in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023) with an ”explosion” after 7 October, the date of the attack Hamas terrorist attack against Israel
which triggered the Israeli army’s reaction in Gaza.
Le Pen and Mélenchon
The leader of the Rassemblement National (RN), Marine Le Pen, called into question “the stigmatization of Jews by the far left that has been going on for months” denouncing on X “the anti-Semitic attack and rape of a 12-year-old girl years”.
Speaking of “a revolting crime”, Le Pen pointed the finger at the treatment suffered by Jews “at the hands of the far left through the exploitation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. “Everyone – he added – must be fully aware of this on 30 June and 7 July”, the dates on which the French are called to the polls for the early legislative elections.
The leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, also spoke on the matter, saying he was “horrified by the rape”, which he defines as the result of “anti-Semitic racism”. The affair “highlights – according to Mélenchon, accused by many of anti-Semitic attitudes – the conditioning of male criminal behavior from a young age, and anti-Semitic racism”.
Attal: ‘Pain, solidarity and anger’
”Raped at 12 because she was Jewish. The pain, first of all and the total solidarity, with this little girl, her parents, her friends. The horror and revolt, then, in the face of a monstrous and cowardly act. Anger, once again, in the face of those who divide us, oppose us, consciously cause hatred to explode. But the determination, above all, to ensure that the perpetrators are tried and condemned with the greatest firmness”.
The French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, wrote this in a message published on X after the events in Courbevoie. The head of government therefore expresses his ”determination to fight, without respite and without limits, against anti-Semitism. Words – concludes Attal – have effects, ideas have consequences. The fight against anti-Semitism is the fight of all Republicans.”
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