Since the October 7 Hamas attack and the start of the Gaza war, Jewish students have spoken of a “hostile” climate at universities in France, citing anti-Semitic threats or tagging, a “scourge” that institutions are trying to combat.
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Jewish students at the University of Nanterre, west of Paris, told the press about “pressure” and “threats” within the establishment.
“Apart from the labels, it is above all a hostile climate, an atmosphere that we denounce towards Jewish students who feel unsafe,” Samuel Lejoyeux, president of the student association, tells AFP Jews of France (UEJF).
The distribution of a leaflet and a video deemed anti-Semitic prompted the university to send two reports to the courts, which are currently “under investigation,” according to Prefect Laurent Hottiaux, who represents the state in the department.
During a visit to Nanterre on Tuesday, Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau described anti-Semitism in universities as a “scourge” and pointed to “intolerable” acts.
“You cannot come to university with a lump in your stomach, regardless of religion or belief,” she said, attributing the anti-Semitic acts in Nanterre to “a minority of people on the extreme left,” without giving further details.
This climate of hostility is not limited to France, where incidents at universities “are in the minority compared to the United States,” Mr. Lejoyeux acknowledges, but the manager says he is still “concerned.”
“This is an observation we have been making for years and since October 7: we have a problem with anti-Semitism in universities,” Hania Hamidi, general secretary of the left-wing union Unef, told AFP.
Together with others, this organization called for a rally “against anti-Semitism” in Paris on Tuesday evening, in which only around thirty people took part. “We didn’t manage to bring many people together today, that’s quite sad,” admitted Loona Mourenas, one of the local leaders of Fage, the first French student association.
In France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, more than 1,500 anti-Semitic acts have been recorded by authorities since October 7, three times more than in all of 2022.
“Individual acts”
Maya Benhaim, vice-president of the UEJF in Nanterre, also denounces a “fearful climate” in her establishment. “We come here to study, not to endure hate,” says this third-year law student who has decided “not to allow her toes to be stepped on.”
There are “isolated acts” against Jewish students at universities in France, notes Guillaume Gellé, president of France Universités, an association of leaders from universities, colleges and research institutions.
“There are quite a few, but there are already too many,” he said, reiterating that university presidents are “mobilized against anti-Semitism” and “respond very quickly to incidents.”
Anti-Semitic acts are much more common in the United States. The US Department of Education has recently opened several investigations into anti-Semitism or Islamophobia at very prestigious universities (Columbia, Cornell and Pennsylvania – three elite institutions on the East Coast), whose campuses have been deeply shaken by the reaction to the war in the Middle East.
The October 7 massacres, which killed more than 1,200 people on the Israeli side, sparked a devastating war between Hamas and Israel, which has been bombing the Gaza Strip ever since. According to Hamas, Israeli military operations there have caused more than 13,300 deaths.