PARIS: Several hundred people protested against anti-Semitism and “rape culture” in Paris on Thursday after the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl at the weekend sparked nationwide outrage.
Various anti-racist, rights and feminist groups had called for the demonstration following Saturday’s gang rape.
Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racist group SOS Racisme, said it was “an anti-Semitic crime that chills our blood.”
Anne-Cecile Mailfert, the president of the Women’s Foundation, said the incident reflected a rise in anti-Semitism since the start of the Gaza war.
But it also highlighted “a rape culture to which young people are more likely to subscribe,” having been “bottle-fed pornography,” she added.
Ner Sfez, a 24-year-old Jewish woman, said she had come to protest a crime “at the intersection of sexism and anti-Semitism.”
Hundreds had already protested on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon in central-eastern France after the incident was reported in the news.
The Jewish girl told police three boys aged between 12 and 13 approached her in a park near her home in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday evening, police sources said.
She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat her and “forced” her to have sex “while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks,” one police source told AFP.
The rape was filmed by one boy and another threatened to kill the girl if she told authorities about her ordeal, police sources said.
Two boys, both aged 13, were charged on Tuesday with gang rape, anti-Semitic insults and violence, and issuing death threats. They have been taken into custody.
A third boy, 12, was charged with anti-Semitic insults and violence and issuing death threats, but not with rape. He was allowed to return home.
France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States.
At Thursday’s protest, Arie Alimi, a lawyer known for tackling police brutality and the vice president of the French Human Rights League, said anti-Semitism, racism and sexism were “everywhere.”
In the run-up to snap parliamentary polls on June 30 and July 7, he urged voters to prevent the far right from seizing power and “installing a racist, anti-Semitic and sexist policy.”
But he also said he was sad to hear “anti-Semitic remarks from a part of those who say they are on the left.”
President Emmanuel Macron called the parliamentary elections after the far right thrashed his centrist alliance in European polls.
His surprise move has seen part of the right ally itself with the far right and the left form a new alliance, with both sides accusing the other of being anti-Semitic.
Hundreds in Paris protest ‘anti-Semitic’ gang rape
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Hundreds in Paris protest ‘anti-Semitic’ gang rape
- The rape was filmed by one boy and another threatened to kill the girl if she told authorities about her ordeal, police sources said
Ukraine president to meet European allies after Trump criticism
- Talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Miami ended on Saturday with no apparent breakthrough
- President Donald Trump accuses Ukrainian leader of not reading the US proposal to end the war with Russia
LONDON: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was due to meet with European allies in London on Monday, after President Donald Trump accused him of not reading the US proposal to end the war with Russia.
It comes after days of talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Miami ended on Saturday with no apparent breakthrough, with Zelensky committing to further negotiations.
The Ukrainian president will be received in London by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, along with the German chancellor and French president to discuss the negotiations.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is meanwhile expected in Washington on Monday, where she will meet her American counterpart Marco Rubio.
“The UK and US will reaffirm their commitment to reaching a peace deal in Ukraine,” the Foreign Office in London said, announcing Cooper’s visit.
Moscow has meanwhile continued to strike its neighbor, wounding at least nine people overnight Sunday to Monday, according to Ukrainian officials.
‘Disappointed’
Zelensky said he joined his negotiators for a “very substantive and constructive” call with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during the Miami negotiations.
“Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” Zelensky said on Telegram, adding that the parties agreed “on the next steps and the format of the talks with America.”
But Trump criticized his Ukrainian counterpart on Sunday, telling reporters “I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago.”
Witkoff and Kushner had met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin last week, with Moscow rejecting parts of the US proposal.
French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of Monday’s talks slammed what he called Russia’s “escalatory path.”
“We will continue these efforts with the Americans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, without which no robust and lasting peace will be possible,” Macron wrote on X.
He added: “We must continue to exert pressure on Russia to compel it to choose peace.”
Hot and cold
Washington’s initial plan to bring an end to the almost four-year war involved Ukraine surrendering land that Russia has not been able to win on the battlefield in return for security promises that fall short of Kyiv’s aspirations to join NATO.
But the nature of the security guarantees that Ukraine could get has so far been shrouded in uncertainty, beyond an initial plan saying that jets to defend Kyiv could be based in Poland.
Trump has blown hot and cold on Ukraine since returning to office in January, initially embracing Putin and chastising Zelensky for not being grateful for US support.
But he has also grown frustrated that his efforts to persuade Putin to end the war, including a summit in Alaska, have failed to produce results and he recently slapped sanctions on Russian oil firms.
