Macron condemns anti-Semitic abuse by 'yellow vests'

PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron condemned anti-Semitic abuse of a leading intellectual by "yellow vest" protestors and said it would not be tolerated.

In Paris, an array of insults, some anti-Semitic, by a handful of yellow vest protesters targeted a well-known French philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut, underscoring excesses that surge within an increasingly divided movement with radical fringes.

"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.

"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.

Police had intervened to this case.

On Saturday, police fired tear gas and brought in water cannons and a horse brigade to disperse several thousand yellow vest protesters massed near a Paris landmark at the end of a march through the French capital. This was the 14th straight weekend of demonstrations.

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 toward him and one even suggested he put on a vest and join the demonstration while another hailed his work.

Finkielkraut has expressed his solidarity and sympathy with the "yellow vest" protestors from the outset but in an interview published on Saturday in Le Figaro, he criticized the leaders of the movement, saying that "arrogance has changed sides".

Saturday's incident triggered a wave of condemnation and messages of support for the philosopher.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said it was "simply intolerable".

Ian Brossat, chief French Communist Party candidate for the European Parliament, said "We can hate Finkielkraut's ideas", but "nothing can justify attacking him as a Jew".

Finkielkraut, who is seen as having pro-establishment beliefs, has since January 2016 been a member of the French Academy, the prestigious institution in charge of defining the French language.

Fourteen political parties on Thursday launched a call for action against anti-Semitism after the interior ministry reported a 74 percent increase in anti-Jewish acts last year.

Afp - Ap

(China Daily 02/18/2019 page12)