French Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut was targeted late Saturday afternoon in Paris on Boulevard du Montparnasse by a roaming band of anti-Semitic Yellow Vest protesters who cornered him in the doorway of a building.
Des croisent Alain Finkielkraut, philosophe français, académicien et juif.
Enchaînement des insultes et du raisonnement :
– Palestine !
– La France est à nous (donc pas aux juifs)
– Sale sioniste (juif)
– Sale race (…)
– Le peuple va te punir
Paris, 2019. pic.twitter.com/nqFipHuNnV— Julien Bahloul (@julienbahloul)
The demonstrators yelled insults and cursed at Finkielkraut, and in one video clip were seen yelling, “You’re going to die, you’re going to hell.” Others told him to “go home” and “go back to Tel Aviv.” In a separate video clip some were heard screaming anti-Semitic curses, such as “dirty Zionist sh – t.”
French President Emmanuel Macron responded to the incident with a statement on Twitter Saturday night, saying, “A son of Polish immigrants who became a French academicians, Alain Finkielkraut isn’t only an eminent man of letters, but a symbol of what the Republic allow for everyone.
“The anti-Semitic insults to which he has been subjected are not aimed solely at a prominent academic and man of letters, but rather the negation of who we are, and what makes us a great nation. We will not tolerate it.”
Les injures antisémites dont il a fait l’objet sont la négation absolue de ce que nous sommes et de ce qui fait de nous une grande nation. Nous ne les tolèrerons pas.https://t.co/WSUTuJmQWX
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron)