More than 180,000 march against soaring anti-Semitism in France

More than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, marched peacefully on Sunday to protest against rising anti-semitism in the wake of Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left, conservatives and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron's party as well as far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended Sunday's march in the French capital amid tight security. Macron did not attend, but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-semitism.” However, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stayed away from the march, saying last week on X, formerly Twitter, that the march would be a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” in Gaza.

The interior ministry said at least 182,000 people marched in several in French cities in response to the call launched by the leaders of the parliament's upper and lower houses. No major incident has been reported, it said.

Paris authorities deployed 3,000 police troops along the route of the protest called by the leaders of the Senate and parliament's lower house, the National Assembly, amid an alarming increase in anti-Jewish acts in France since the start of Israel's war against Hamas after its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel.

France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but given its own World War II collaboration with the Nazis, anti-Semitic acts today open old scars. (AP)