PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron called for intensified efforts to combat antisemitism in France, as recent government data showed hostility toward Jews has remained high despite a decline in recorded incidents last year.
France, which has the largest Jewish community in Europe, documented 1,320 antisemitic acts in 2025, accounting for 53 percent of all anti-religious incidents, according to a report released on Thursday by the Interior Ministry.
Even as incidents fell 16 percent year-on-year, they remained at “historically high” levels for three consecutive years, the Ministry said.
The increase followed the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent conflict in Gaza.
“Schools, the justice system, elected officials: everyone must be mobilized,” Macron said at a ceremony commemorating 20 years since the death of Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish man who died after being kidnapped and held captive for 24 days. A gang leader was sentenced in 2009 to life in prison for his abduction, torture and murder.
Macron criticized what he called the “poison of online hatred” and urged the European Commission to hold big online platforms accountable.
“In the France of the Enlightenment, ‘free speech’ stops at antisemitism and racism,” the French leader said.
Antisemitic acts continue rising across Europe. Britain recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in 2025, a 4 percent increase and the second-worst year on record, according to data published on Wednesday by the Community Security Trust, which protects Jews in the UK.
In Germany, cases of antisemitism nearly doubled to 8,627 last year, according to the Federal Research and Information Point for Antisemitism, pointing to violence, vandalism, and threats tied to the Gaza conflict.
Macron calls for stronger measures against antisemitism in France
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Macron calls for stronger measures against antisemitism in France
- French president: ‘Government and parliament will work to strengthen the penalties for antisemitic and racist acts’
Dozens of film figures condemn Berlin Film Festival ‘silence’ on Gaza
- The signatories to the open letter said they were “appalled” by the festival’s “institutional silence“
- The festival has been hit by controversy over Gaza several times in recent years
BERLIN: More than 80 film industry figures including Oscar-winning actors Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton issued a statement on Tuesday slamming the Berlin Film Festival’s “silence” on Gaza.
The signatories to the open letter, sent to AFP, said they were “appalled” by the festival’s “institutional silence” and “dismayed” at its “involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Their statement came after the Berlinale’s jury president, German director Wim Wenders, answered a question on Gaza last week by saying: “We cannot really enter the field of politics.”
Prominent directors who signed Tuesday’s letter, coordinated by the Film Workers for Palestine collective, include British filmmaker Mike Leigh and the American Adam McKay.
The signatories include many artists who have presented work at the Berlin Film Festival. Swinton was herself last year awarded its prestigious Honorary Golden Bear award.
They said they “fervently disagree” with Wenders’s comments, arguing that filmmaking and politics cannot be separated.
“Just as the festival has made clear statements in the past about atrocities carried out against people in Iran and Ukraine, we call on the Berlinale to fulfil its moral duty and clearly state its opposition to Israel’s genocide,” the letter adds.
The signatories took exception not only to the Berlinale’s stance on Gaza, but also “the German state’s key role in enabling” Israel’s actions.
- ‘Media storm’ -
The festival has been hit by controversy over Gaza several times in recent years.
When asked about Germany’s support for Israel at a press conference on Thursday, Wenders said filmmakers had “to stay out of politics.”
“We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians,” he said.
Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska said it was a “little bit unfair” to expect the jury to take a direct stance on the issue.
Their comments had already sparked a backlash. Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy canceled a planned appearance at the festival, saying she was “shocked and disgusted” at the jury members’ comments.
On Saturday, the Berlinale put out a statement defending Wenders from the “media storm,” indicating that his remarks had been taken out of context.
Festival director Tricia Tuttle said that artists “are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose” and should not “be expected to speak on every political issue raised to them unless they want to.”
In 2024, the festival’s documentary award went to “No Other Land,” which follows the dispossession of Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
German government officials criticized “one-sided” remarks about Gaza by the directors of that film and others at that year’s awards ceremony.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation has left at least 71,000 people dead in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.
