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In February 2019, many of the graves in the Jewish cemetery at Quartzenheim were also desecrated (image for illustration). Frederick FLORIN / AFP

Anti-Semitic inscriptions were found on Tuesday, December 3, on 107 graves at the Westhoffen Jewish Cemetery, not far from Strasbourg, in eastern France, said in a statement the prefecture of the department.

This desecration of 107 graves in the Westhoffen Jewish Cemetery comes just after the discovery of anti-Semitic tags that morning in the town of Schaffhausen-sur-Zorn, located about twenty kilometers. The gendarmerie "is currently making the first acts of findings and investigations" in the desecrated cemetery, the prefecture said.

" It's consternation, it's shock, " reacted Maurice Dahan, the president of the Jewish Consistory of the department of Bas-Rhin. According to him, the cemetery has some 700 graves. Those who were desecrated were " essentially stained with swastikas, " he added.

Antisemitic acts on the rise in Alsace

For his part, the prefect Jean-Luc Marx condemned " with the greatest firmness these despicable anti-Semitic acts that strike again the Bas-Rhin and expresses its total support to the Jewish community, " the statement said. The Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, for his part denounced " abject and disgusting acts ".

These abject and disgusting acts are an insult to the values ​​of our Republic: everything is done so that they do not go unpunished.
Our @Gendarmerie services are mobilized to identify and challenge their authors. https://t.co/6zuACeWZxE

Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) December 3, 2019

For several months, Alsace has been facing an upsurge of anti-Semitic and / or racist graffiti and degradations. In the same department of Bas-Rhin, 96 graves of the Jewish cemetery of Quatzenheim , about fifteen kilometers from Westhoffen, had been stained with antisemitic tags on February 19, as well as that of Herrlisheim, north-east of Strasbourg, December 11, 2018.

(With AFP)