A 12-year-old Jewish girl was gang-raped by child attackers who taunted her with anti-Semitic slurs in a case that has shocked France.
The attack has placed anti-Semitism in the centre of the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections, with political parties condemning the attack, and pointing fingers at one another.
The assault happened Saturday in the suburb of Courbevoie, northwest of Paris, as the victim was walking home after parting with her boyfriend.
Two teens approached her and dragged her forcibly into a warehouse. A third suspect, 12, joined them, hurling anti-Semitic insults, calling her “dirty Jew” as the other boys beat, threatened, and raped her, and forced her to perform oral sex.
The attackers put a lighter to her cheek, threatened to kill her if she went to the police, and instructed her to return to the same place the next day with 200 euros.
“Otherwise something bad would happen to her and her family because they know where she lives,” they said, according to police reports seen by Le Parisien.
Two 13-year-old boys were indicted on Tuesday on charges of gang rape, death threats, insults and personal violence, while a third 12-year-old has also been placed under the status of assisted witness for rape.
News of the assault reached Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who denounced the “scourge of anti-Semitism” during a council meeting on Wednesday and called on Nicole Belloubet, his education minister, to implement class discussions or a “time of exchange” on racism and anti-Semitism in schools.
“After a solemn and serious speech, he asked Nicole Belloubet that a time of exchange be organised in all schools on the fight against anti-Semitism and racism so that hate speech with serious consequences does not infiltrate them,” an unnamed source close to Mr Macron told BFM TV.
The news drew swift condemnation from all political parties but has also become an electoral issue, with Mr Macron’s party attacking the New Popular Front, the newly formed Leftist coalition, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon for fueling anti-Semitism in France.
The leader of the far-Left France Unbowed (France Insoumise) refuses to characterise Hamas as a terrorist organisation and is a divisive figure within the hastily assembled Leftist alliance for his stance.
In response to Mr Mélenchon’s tweet of support to the victim’s family in which he said he was “horrified” by the attack, Eric Dupond-Moretti, the justice minister, said: “How dare you? You have no face. Leave this young girl and her family alone. Your recurring comments feed the hatred that leads to the worst…Shame on those who make pacts with you to save their own pockets.”
At a gathering in front of Paris City Hall on Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators also shouted “Mélenchon in prison”.
The president of the largest Jewish association in France, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), also slammed the far-Left party.
“We must fight against this climate of anti-Semitism fueled by France Insoumise,” Yonathan Arfi said. “We must do everything to fight both extremes, without compromise.”
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-Right National Rally founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was convicted several times for anti-Semitic comments, condemned both the attack and her political rivals in the Left bloc, whom she called “a real threat to civic peace”.
“…the stigmatisation of Jews over the past months by the extreme left, using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an instrument, is a real threat to civil peace. Everyone should be fully aware of this on June 30 and July 7,” she wrote.
On Thursday, Jacques Kossowski, the mayor of Courbevoie, accused politicians of instrumentalising the tragedy for political gain.
“This is a 12-year-old girl who had the courage to speak to her father, to go to the police station to file a complaint. She suffered what no one could suffer,” he told French radio station RTL.
“Let’s try not to politically exploit this affair. When I see all the political parties, right, left, talking about it… Let’s be a little more modest and think of only one thing, of this 12-year-old girl.”
According to government figures, anti-Semitic acts soared 300 per cent between January and March, compared to the same period last year.
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