Gérald Darmanin will receive representatives of Jewish institutions
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that at 3 p.m. he would receive the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, the President of the CRIF, Yonathan Arfi, and the President of the Central Consistory, Elie Korchia, to discuss the situation following Hamas’ surprise offensive from Gaza against Israel.
On Saturday, the Interior Minister called on the prefects of France to strengthen the security of Jewish community places through the visible and static presence of law enforcement in front of places of worship and the reinforcement of the municipal police and the soldiers of Operation “Sentinel”. Since the beginning of the Jewish New Year in mid-September, the Jewish community has celebrated several holidays.
Mr. Darmanin, who held a meeting with all his officials on Sunday morning, reiterated that “today there is no clear threat that would affect our Jewish compatriots on the national territory.” However, he did mention several anti-Semitic incidents in France over the weekend. “This weekend, for example, we saw around ten anti-Semitic acts, insults, telephone threats or people coming to places of worship,” he reported, specifying that there were “many arrests.” The minister reported “around 700 reports on Pharos,” the platform for reporting violent or illegal content circulating on the Internet. “These reports to Pharos are open legal investigations,” he added.
Mr. Darmanin also justified the ban on holding a pro-Palestinian rally planned for Monday evening in Lyon. “The demonstration took place in the already difficult Guillotière district (…) and the organizers of the demonstration are very poorly known.” The CRIF, for its part, called for a rally at Place d’Italie in Paris on Monday at 6:30 p.m.