Hundreds of people in Strasbourg for the release of Hamas hostages

Europe 1 with AFP // Credits: LAURE BOYER / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 7:59 p.m., February 11, 2024

Hundreds of people marched in Strasbourg on Sunday for the release of Hamas hostages and against anti-Semitism. "We still hope for the release of the hostages. We are dismayed by the explosion of anti-Semitism. We must see the fight against Islamism to the end, for our survival," Pierre Haas, president of the Crif East. The demonstrators, who numbered 750 according to the police, marched from Republic Square to the Great Synagogue of Peace, Israeli and French flags in hand.

On the square in front of the Synagogue, they lit candles. This gathering comes four days after the national tribute paid to the French victims of the Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel. France has the largest Jewish community in Europe, with around 500,000 people, including some 20,000 members in Bas-Rhin, mainly in Strasbourg. The Jewish community of Alsace is one of the largest in France. 

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“Revolt against this rampant anti-Semitism”

In Strasbourg, representatives of Crif and the Consistory denounced the explosion in the number of anti-Semitic acts in France, which has quadrupled in one year, to 1,676 compared to 436 in 2022, according to Crif. Mentioning the recent attack on three Jewish students who were putting up posters for the release of Hamas hostages on the campus of the University of Strasbourg, the president of the Bas-Rhin consistory, Maurice Dahan, called for "to rise up against this rampant anti-Semitism.”

The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas commandos in southern Israel, which left more than 1,160 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.