In letter to French, Macron urges battling ‘unbearable resurgence of antisemitism’

In a letter to his nation, French President Emmanuel Macron stresses the need to combat the “unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism,” branding the phenomenon “odious.”

“In one month, more than a thousand antisemitic acts were committed on our soil. Three times more acts of hatred against our Jewish compatriots in a few weeks than during the whole of last year,” Macron says in the letter, published on the Le Parisien news website.

“Our Jewish compatriots therefore experience legitimate anguish. Fear to take their children to school. Fear of going home alone. Fear to the point of hiding their name to protect themselves,” Macron writes, adding: “A France where our fellow Jewish citizens are afraid is not France. A France where French people are afraid because of their religion or their origin is not France.”

He hails police actions aimed at countering the epidemic and bringing antisemitism “back to where it belongs: in court and behind bars. No tolerance for the intolerable.”

Macron notes the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, reiterating that he backs Israel’s right to defend itself without qualification. But he urges political dialogue and building a “humanitarian coalition” that will facilitate a “humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire.”

“We want justice, peace and security for the people of Israel, for the Palestinian people and for the states of the region,” he concludes, urging unity among the French.