🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Marching against anti-Semitism

12 November 2023 - A march against antisemitism, Macron’s Humanitarian conference on Gaza, France is experiencing an anti-Semitic explosion, and Sarkozy fights appeal in court

This week

• ✡️A march against antisemitism

• 🤝Macron’s Humanitarian conference on Gaza

• 💥France experiencing an anti-Semitic explosion

• ⚖️Sarkozy fights appeal in court

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✡️A march against antisemitism

Announcement for the March today (

To start with, today will see a grande march against antisemitism across France, with the largest march expected to take place in Paris, which will see every party represented aside from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise, who will instead go to an event in Strasbourg instead of Paris.

Marching behind a banner stating “For the Republic, against Antisemtism”, the Paris march will be led by the Presidents of the Assemblée National and the French Senat, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher.

While Emmanuel Macron will not be participating in the march today, he made it clear that this was due to his belief that the President should not take part in these kinds of events. Instead, the Renaissance party will be represented by Elizabeth Borne and other high-ranking members of the party.

However, there was some problems in the lead-up to this event, with the announced participation of Marine Le Pen and her Rassemblement National, as well as both Zemmour and Marion Maréchal Le Pen’s Reconquête! Party.

As previously stated, most of the far-right parties are attempting a little bit of opportunism in order to clean their records and make themselves more palatable to the electorate.

However, nobody is fooled for the time being, with politicians and parties making a point, as Elizabeth Borne has, to say that “the Presence of the Rassemblement National is tricking nobody”.

Regardless, it was due to the overall historic and current antisemitism that both parties have yet to deal with and stamp out that gave La France Insoumise an excuse to not participate in this march.

Likewise, the Parti Socialiste, the Parti Communiste de France, and EELV all balked at the idea of marching with these actors, but made a point of attending the march due to the importance of the fight against antisemitism in France and the Wider Europe.

However, they’ve made a point of maintaining a “republican cordon” to keep the far-right away from them and maintain some dignity.

And let’s not talk about the state of the NUPES Coalition after the mess that Mélenchon and friends have made of the current situation.

The important question, however, is how will this march go? Will it manage to show enough force and support for the Jewish population in France that the repeated attempts to intimidate them will come to an end? Will there be a counter-protest from some looking to make a point?

Will there potentially be a political argument within the march, as parties attempt to keep the Far-right out of their midsts?

Unfortunately, the reality is that antisemitism is far-too engrained a lot of what we see, with stereotypes being used to fuel conspiracy theories, “jokes”, abuse, and other unforgivable acts that make the world a worse place for our Jewish concitoyens.

Without a vastly strengthened education that improves the critical thinking of our societies, an understanding of the different cultures around us, and as basic as it sounds, an education that reinforces empathy for others, we will continue to struggle to overcome this.

Not only this, but we’ll continue to struggle so long as we continue to allow the dissemination of misinformation, disinformation, xenophobia, and racism or all kinds that actively fuels divisions and enables these toxic environments to fester.

🤝Macron’s Humanitarian conference on Gaza

French President Emmanuel Macron (Photo by EU2017EE)

Emmanuel Macron has had a tough balancing act in the wake of the crimes against humanity that were committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7 2023.

Not only is he the president of the European country with the highest number of Jewish (500,000) and Muslim (5 million) citizens, leading to his call for calm as tensions rose in the wake of the attack, but he’s also one of the core European leaders.

This naturally puts him in a position where he many look to him for a response to the ongoing crisis, which was starting to unravel in France and other cities in Europe with protests having been sadly marred by violence, and repeated violent events targeting Jewish citizens on our continent.

It’s for this reason that the humanitarian conference on Gaza, taking place in Paris, was so highly awaited, with a need for a strong European reaction to weigh on the situation, and a need for the European Union to begin flexing it’s muscles.

While being a last-minute conference, there were a significant number of high level politicians who attended, as well as Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. However, Israel rejected the invitation to the event.

This may have been due to an Israeli expectation of what was one of the big statements of the event: President Macron rejecting the Israeli plan to place Gazan civilians into safe zones in the south of Gaza, describing it as a terrible idea that would not guarantee the safety of these people because no political agreement existed.

Instead, the argument was pushed forward regarding the need for a humanitarian ceasefire to save lives in the area, with a proposal for a one-way maritime humanitarian corridor between Cyprus and Southern Gaza being well received by several politicians, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The plan, suggested by Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides, would be a based at the port of Larnaca, around 370km from Gaza, and would be used to maintain 200,000 tonnes of aid that could be shipped to a UN-designated controlled area in southern Gaza.

Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also announced that Greece would provide naval assets for this initiative, so long as the proposal was proven to be safe and the landing zone had the requisite infrastructure to manage this plan.

If enough support can be found for this initiative, particularly from the EU and the US, there could be a potential for a system that would protect Palestinians from becoming collateral damage in this war, and from Hamas abuse, and also bring in the agreement of the Israeli government.

Not only this, but there could be an effective way of preventing abuse of this safezone by Hamas fighters, who have already been caught attempting to use an Egyptian offer for civilian healthcare to heal their forces.

💥France experiencing an anti-Semitic explosion

Stars of David being used to make Jewish residences in Paris this October (Photo by UEJF)

France, however, will still have to deal with a major issue in the meantime, with anti-semitic acts having “exploded” in France since October 7 2023, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

Speaking in the Senate, Darmanin outlined how there had been 1,159 anti-semitic acts and 518 arrests related to this since the Hamas attacks, a figure that was unheard of in France, and was yet a reality despite being 3,000 km away from the conflict.

This has led to Jewish citizens feeling genuinely anxious about their daily lives, with many actively avoiding Israeli Schools, places of worship, Kosher businesses, and other gathering places of the Jewish community.

⚖️Sarkozy fights appeal in court

Nicolas Sarkozy in 2011 (Photo by the World Economic Forum)

Let’s finish the week off with another big story about former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, who began his appeal hearings in Paris this Wednesday regarding his conviction for illegal campaign financing related to the 2012 elections.

For those who wonder why he was charged last month, this was related to the alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential victory. Both of these are also in addition to the probe regarding potential influence peddling through Russian insurance firm Reso-Garantia back in 2019.

As part of the Bymalion affair, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentanced to one year in prison back in 2021 based on the charge that his party, previously known as the UMP, uses a PR firm to hide the costs of his 2012 re-election big and circumvent campaign spending limits.

This limit of €22.5 million was absolutely crushed, with prosecutors having said that Sarkozy had spent almost €43 million, almost double the limit. This affair led to 13 other people being charged.

The Appeal is expected to last for around five weeks, with Sarkozy currently pencilled in to testify on Thursday 23 November, 2023.

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