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More than 180,000 people across France, including about 105,000 in Paris, took part in a civic march against anti-Semitism on Sunday, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry and police prefectures.
Prominent political figures such as former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, as well as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak took part in the march. President Emmanuel Macron was not there, but he wrote an open letter published in French newspaper Le Parisien over the weekend to condemn “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism.”
The event, hosted by National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet and Senate Speaker Gérard Larcher, comes amid an explosion of anti-Semitic acts in France. According to France 24, nearly 1,250 anti-Semitic acts have been recorded in France since the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,200 civilians and taking more than 240 hostages. Went. The army began bombing the Gaza Strip to eliminate Hamas, which rules Gaza and is still holding people hostage. However, the march in France was peaceful, with attendees waving French flags, urging national unity and celebrating republican values.
The march also featured a number of celebrities from the film and TV world, including Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch, producer/TV host Arthur Essebag and MK2 co-CEO Nathanael Karmitz, as well as Mélanie Thierry, Elsa Zilberstein, Natalie Portman (who contacted the organizers before the event and told them she would participate) and Sandrine Kiberlain. Producer Melita Toscan du Plantier and directors Elie Chouraqui and Daniel Thompson were also in attendance.
Following the October 7 attack, other French entertainment industry players, including Justine Triot, Juliette Binoche, Alice Diop and Adèle Exarchopoulos, released open letters and petitions demanding an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” after “decades of occupation” by Israel. Have signed. The terrorist attack by Hamas was called a “war crime”.