U P D A T E - 9 August

Antisemitism at Anti-Vax Rallies in France

The pogrom atmosphere persists. Last Saturday’s anti-vax rally poster in Metz carries the names of mostly Jewish figures.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is taking action.

(photo RL/DL)

Paris, 4 August 2021

In a letter to French Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed disgust at a campaign against French Jewish Doctors reminiscent of medieval charges of poisoning wells, their 1940’s arrests by Vichy France and Stalin’s 1951 to 1953 “Killer Jewish Doctor’s Plot” against the Soviet Union.

The newspaper Liberation noted the extreme-right YouTube channel “Qui” (“Who”). The “Who” became clearer in interviews of Parisians at the “Anti-Vac” Saturday marches across France. They revealed the “Qui” – without the mention of “Jew” – “the ‘Who’ controls the media... the word Covid is Hebrew... it is in the Talmud, etc.”

The letter charged: “Mr. Minister, the anti-vaccine cause in France is being hijacked for Jew-hatred.”

The Centre called on Minister Darmanin to close down the “Qui” channel. “Despite President Macron’s pleas, anti-vaccination is, though misguided, a legal right. However, when it becomes a vector for antisemitism and endangers Jewish doctors, it is a hate-crime under French law, which must be invoked,” argued Samuels.

“Mr. Minister, French Jewish doctors and those thought to be Jewish by the hatemongers must be protected. The irony is that the antisemites may one day be saved by a doctor who happens to be Jewish.”

“We await your response to this outrage,” concluded Samuels.

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“My cause was justice, not vengeance. My work is for a better tomorrow and a more secure future for our children and grandchildren.” (Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005)