Vandals desecrate 90 Jewish graves in Paris as antisemitism marches about to take place

Demonstrators and politicans take to streets after 74 per cent rise in antisemitic incidents

Graves desecrated with swastikas are seen in the Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, near Strasbourg, France (Reuters)

Vandals desecrated 90 graves in a Jewish cemetery in France shortly before antisemitic marches were planned to take place across the country.

French president Emmanuel Macron visited the cemetery in the village of Quatzenheim, near the city of Strasbourg, on Tuesday after the graves were daubed with swastikas and antisemitic slogans overnight.

"It's important for me to be here with you today," he told local leaders and members of the Jewish community after paying his respects at one of the graves.

Many French political leaders, athough not Mr Macron himself, were due to join a march against antisemitism in Paris on Tuesday night.

Thousands of protesters planned to gather across France on Tuesday to march against antisemitism after a string of incidents plagued the country.

It came after an upsurge in antisemitism in the country, which is home to the world’s largest Jewish population outside Israel and the US.

In the latest incident at the weekend, a torrent of hate speech was directed at prominent philosopher Alain Finkielkraut during a march of yellow vest protesters.

Just days earlier the government reported a 74 per cent rise in registered incidents of antisemitism – which leapt from 311 in 2017 to 541 in 2018.

A rose is placed on vandalised post boxes in Paris which have swastikas covering the face of the late Holocaust survivor and renowned French politician Simone Veil. (AP/Michel Euler)

Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister, will lead the government delegation at Place de la République in Paris.

Richard Ferrand, National Assembly president, and Gerard Larcher, head of the Senate, will also hold a moment of silence at the Shoah memorial in Paris.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is not expected to attend, but will deliver a speech at Wednesday’s annual dinner by leading Jewish group CRIF.

Mr Philippe said antisemitism was “deeply rooted” in French society.

He told L’Express magazine: “We must be totally determined, I would say almost enraged, in our will to fight, with a clear awareness that this fight is an old one and will last a long time.”

In other incidents this month, swastika graffiti was found on street portraits of Simone Veil, a survivor of Nazi death camps and a European Parliament president who died in 2017.

The word “Juden” was also painted on the window of a bagel restaurant in Paris and two trees planted at a memorial honouring a young Jewish man tortured to death in 2006 were vandalised.

Last Friday, two youths were arrested after they allegedly fired shots at a synagogue with an air rifle in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, where a large Jewish community lives.

Sarcelles mayor Patrick Haddad told BFMTV on Tuesday that prosecutors considered the motive to be antisemitism.

Political parties from across the spectrum will unite in Paris but Marine Le Pen’s far-right party will hold a separate event.

According to sociologist Danny Trom, author of the book France Without Jews, thousands of Jewish people leave France every year because of the rise of antisemitism.