A shocking incident in which two teenagers were charged with the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb has sparked an introspection across France, with Jewish groups taking to the streets to protest rising anti-Semitism and President Emmanuel Macron urging that anti-Semitism be tackled in schools.
Macron reportedly condemned the “scourge of anti-Semitism” at a government meeting on Wednesday and instructed his education minister, Nicole Belloubet, to launch anti-Semitism awareness campaigns in French schools, a source told news agency Agence France-Presse.
“The horror knows no bounds. Rape, anti-Semitism: everything about this crime committed in Courbevoie against a 12-year-old girl is abhorrent,” Belloubet tweeted on Wednesday. She added: “Justice, school, Republic: a united response against barbarism.”
Two 13-year-old boys were charged Tuesday with multiple counts, including rape and the victim’s religious affiliation, in connection with the incident that occurred Saturday night. A third boy, 12, was charged with offenses related to witnessing the alleged crime.
The French daily newspaper Le Monde described the police report, which also included statements from the girl and the investigating officers, as “unbearable” in its details.
Two of the accused teens admitted to being motivated by the victim’s identity, according to the report. One of them said he was angry because she kept her religion a secret from him, and another said he resented her comments about Palestine. (The reports did not provide details about the comments.) One of the boys called her a “dirty Jew,” according to multiple accounts of the incident.
The incident has provoked fierce recriminations across France and elsewhere, saying it reflects deep problems in French society. “We have the impression that French society has come to terms with anti-Semitism,” Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, an umbrella organization of French Jewish institutions, said on television on Thursday.
Haim Korsia, France’s chief rabbi, tweeted that he was “horrified” by the alleged crime, which followed several other crimes in recent years that have prompted self-reflection among French Jews. “Justice must severely punish the perpetrators of this despicable act,” Korsia wrote.
The incident came at a time of political turmoil in France after Macron, a centrist, called new elections following a strong showing by far-right parties in European elections earlier this month. That dynamic led to an unprecedented embrace by the traditionally conservative party of a far-right party, the Rassemblement National, founded by a convicted Holocaust denier, raising fears among some French Jews.
This week, the Rassemblement National withdrew its support for a local candidate who said in a now-deleted 2018 tweet that “gas brought justice to the victims of the Holocaust.”
And Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Rassemblement National, joined politicians from across the political spectrum in condemning the rape and pointing the finger at the perpetrators.
“The anti-Semitic attack and rape of a 12-year-old child in Hauts-de-Seine outrages us,” Le Pen tweeted. “The explosion of anti-Semitic acts, which has increased by 300% compared to the first three months of 2023, must alarm all French people: the months-long stigmatization of Jews by the far left through the instrumentalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a real threat to internal peace. Everyone should be fully aware of this on June 30 and July 7, when elections are due.”
Jean-Luc Melechon, leader of the far-left France Indomitable party, also condemned the alleged attack and expressed hope that it would not become a “media spectacle” during the election season. His party has been accused of stoking anti-Semitism in its aggressive opposition to the war between Israel and Hamas.
“I am appalled by this rape in Courbevoie and by everything it reveals about the shaping of criminal male behaviour from an early age and anti-Semitic racism,” Mélenchon tweeted.
Leading members of Macron’s party also attacked Mélenchon in public comments.
“Faced with such a tragedy… I naturally imagine that all the major politicians condemn it, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is of Jewish descent, said at a press conference on Thursday, according to Politico. “But what I also want to say is that since October 7, we have seen a form of unbridled anti-Semitism that is developing and breaking out. And I think that political leaders and political parties have a responsibility to put up barriers to prevent certain rhetoric from becoming a habit.”
