France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim populations. Inevitably, what is happening in the Middle East has a particular resonance here. The grotesque images that circulated after Hamas’s horrific attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October, planned and carried out in a chillingly meticulous way, sent shockwaves through France that are still reverberating.
A big part of the country’s public debate has been fixated, since the massacre, on avoiding the “importation” of tensions connected with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a spate of antisemitic incidents, Emmanuel Macron is rightly concerned about the fear gripping “our compatriots of the Jewish faith”. In a televised address to the nation, he announced a range of measures to tighten protection at Jewish schools and places of worship and culture.
