French President Emmanuel Macron warned Yellow Vest protestors that anti-Semitic abuse will not be tolerated.
“The anti-Semitic insults he has been subjected to are the absolute negation of what we are and what makes us a great nation. We will not tolerate it,” Macron tweeted.
As reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), Macron was reacting to an incident in which police intervened to protect philosopher and writer Alain Finkielkraut after he was targeted by a group of protestors on the fringe of a demonstration in central Paris on February 16, according to videos posted on social networks.
“The son of Polish immigrants who became a French academician, Alain Finkielkraut is not only a prominent man of letters but the symbol of what the Republic allows everyone,” the president added in another tweet.
Several protestors shouted, “Dirty Zionist,” “We are the people” and “France is ours”, according to a video broadcast by Yahoo! News.
“I felt absolute hatred and, unfortunately, this is not the first time,” Finkielkraut, 69, told Journal du Dimanche.
“I would have been afraid if there had not been the police, fortunately they were there,” he told the newspaper, while adding that not all the demonstrators were hostile towards him and one even suggested he put on a vest and join the demonstration while another hailed his work.
According to AFP, a recent spate of anti-Semitic vandalism and graffiti in and around Paris has stoked fresh concerns about an increase in hate crime against Jews.
