Lionel Gougelot (correspondent in Hauts-de-France) / Photo credits: THIBAUT DURAND / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 10:57 a.m., March 22, 2024

On French campuses, the number of anti-Semitic acts has continued to increase since the start of the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Intimidation, verbal aggression, violent leaflets... Jewish students say they are harassed because of their beliefs. Europe 1 carried out the investigation at the Lille faculty. 

A four-fold increase in one year: the number of anti-Semitic acts recorded in France jumped last year, to 1,676 compared to 436 in 2022, according to a Crif report which deplores an "explosion" after October 7, the date of the attacks of Hamas against Israel. The phenomenon particularly affects universities. Testimonies are multiplying and all the victims describe a hostile climate. From verbal assault to intimidation, Jewish students say they are regularly harassed because of their beliefs. Europe 1 carried out the investigation at the Lille faculty. 

“Yes, it’s hatred of the Jew”

While no movement of solidarity had manifested itself in the university with regard to the victims of October 7, it was after the launch of the Israeli offensive on Gaza that Tom, a student at Sciences Po Lille, noticed a liberation of anti-Semitic speech.

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"When someone tells me head-on: 'you deserve what is happening to you', yes, it's hatred of the Jew. I think that these people are rejoicing at what happened on October 7 and are rejoicing in the "current atmosphere that there is in France and in the universities", explains Tom at the microphone of Europe 1. 

A desire to hide issues of anti-Semitism

This constant climate of hostility is often established by the ultra-left. It is also felt by Iris, a law school student: "I do not feel at all safe from attack because of the climate of violence, the distribution of hateful and defamatory, slanderous leaflets, it is extremely shocking".

When these students alerted the university authorities, they were told that they should not make waves. “We always have to justify with A+B that it is really anti-Semitism. We have the impression that they want to silence us because it is difficult to bring up this kind of information in executives like Sciences Po or the University of Lille. There is really this desire to hide the problems of anti-Semitism,” continues Tom.

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Students who, for the most part, refuse to give in to fear. That would be telling the anti-Semites that they have won.