Two teens charged with ‘horrific’ antisemitic rape of 12-year-old girl near Paris
Third suspect indicted for anti-Jewish threats as attack sends shockwaves through France; Macron decries ‘scourge,’ urges schools to discuss hatred of Jews
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday denounced the “scourge of antisemitism” after authorities charged two 13-year-old boys with the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb.
The attack, suspected to have been motivated by antisemitism, has sent shock waves through the Jewish community and added to tensions ahead of a snap election that could bring the far-right National Rally to power for the first time.
The girl told police she was approached by three boys aged between 12 and 13 while she was in a park near her home with a friend and dragged into a shed on Saturday evening in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie.
The suspects beat her and “forced her to have anal and vaginal penetration, fellatio, while uttering death threats and antisemitic remarks,” a police source told AFP.
Her friend managed to identify two of the attackers.
The girl said she had been called a “dirty Jew,” another police source said.
One of the boys asked her questions about “her Jewish religion” and Israel, the source added, citing the child’s statement to investigators.
The three boys were arrested Monday.
On Tuesday evening, two of them, both aged 13, were charged with gang rape, antisemitic insults and violence and issuing death threats, and ordered to remain in custody.
The third boy, 12, was also charged with antisemitic insults and violence and issuing death threats, but not with rape. He was allowed to return home after being charged.
According to Le Parisien, one of the suspects was the girl’s former boyfriend, who confessed to the attack and said he had acted out of revenge after she hid her religious identity from him. French media outlets reported that investigators uncovered antisemitic content on the suspect’s phone, although that was not confirmed.
Following the indictments, hundreds took part in demonstrations Wednesday against antisemitism in Paris and Lyon.
“Raped at 12 because she was Jewish,” said one banner at a demonstration in central Paris where Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti was among well-known figures to take part.
Macron told government ministers that a “scourge of antisemitism” threatens French schools, a source close to him said.
The source added that the president called for “dialogue” about racism and hatred of Jews in schools to prevent “hateful speech with serious consequences” from “infiltrating” classrooms.
The leaders of France’s Jewish community, the largest of any country outside Israel and the United States, expressed horror over the attack.
France, which is home to Europe’s largest Muslim community, experienced a surge in antisemitic acts after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel and the start of Israel’s military campaign against the terror group in Gaza.
France’s chief rabbi Haim Korsia wrote on X that he was “horrified” by the alleged rape and that “no one should be excused in the face of this unprecedented wave of antisemitism.”
Courbevoie’s center-right mayor Jacques Kossowski condemned “an abject act” and called for the perpetrators to be met with the full force of the law “whatever their age.”
Antisemitic acts in France increased threefold in the first months of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago, official figures show.
Of the 1,676 antisemitic acts recorded in 2023, 12.7 percent took place in schools.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
