A new poll has found that 71% of the French public believes anti-Semitism is on the rise in France and that 70% think Jews should not hide their identity.

Last week in France there was debate on whether Jews should continue to wear a kippa (yarmulke or skullcap) after a Jewish man was attacked by a machete-wielding teen on the streets of Marseille.

Due to an increasing number of attacks against Jews, as well as the deadly ‘Hyper Cacher’ shooting in January last year, a survey was carried out by Odoxa on behalf of French digital channel iTele and Paris Match magazine.

While most surveys about anti-Semitism are conducted within the Jewish community, this survey questioned a broad spectrum of the French general public.  Their research provided the following results:

The French public overwhelmingly want the Jewish community to continue wearing their skullcaps. In fact, 70% of respondents said Jews should continue to wear the skullcap and not bow down to terrorism.

On top of this, 71% of the French public said that anti-Semitism was on the rise in France.

This only is this consistent with other statistics, but shows the French public are becoming more aware that anti-Semitism is on the increase in France. In recent weeks there have been some highly publicised anti-Semitic incidents that have shocked the country and drawn public attention to the plight of France’s Jewish community.

Christians United for Israel UK

To use your voice in the fight against anti-Semitism, please sign our ‘Christians Against Anti-Semitism’ petition here.

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