Yellow vests fuel surge in anti-semitism

France’s yellow vest insurrection is feeding a hatred of Jews that has surged over the past year, according to the Elysee Palace.

“Anti-semitism is spreading like poison,” said Christophe Castaner, the interior minister. “It’s rotting minds, it’s killing.” He was speaking at a memorial on Monday night to Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man who was tortured to death by Muslim men in 2006. Trees forming part of his memorial were hacked down last week.

Mr Castaner voiced alarm over the resurgence of anti-semitism, with a 74 per cent rise in anti-Jewish acts recorded across France last year. He said it was prevalent on social media and visible in slogans and acts of vandalism near the gilets jaunes protests in French cities.

The antisemitic protesters believe that President Macron is a puppet of Jewish interests who are the real rulers of France. A recent 30-minute program, which claims to be a documentary, argues that the Rothschild banking family, Mr Macron’s previous employer, is the “master” of France. It has been watched 1.5 million times on YouTube in the past two months.

Read the article in The Australian.