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French Prime Minister promises war on antisemitism

September 10, 2015 15:29
Manuel Valls

ByAndrew Rosemarine, Andrew Rosemarine

1 min read

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls pledged to engage in “combat against antisemitism” in a rousing pre-Rosh Hashanah address to the Nazareth Synagogue in Paris last week.

Mr Valls said “a vast campaign” against all forms of racism would be launched by his government this autumn.

“Every prefect, every state prosecutor, has been instructed to punish these crimes with the full force of the law,” he thundered. “Today, the fight has to be fought again.”

France must not forget the Dreyfus affair, he said, nor the murders of Ilan Halimi in Paris in 2006, the killings in Toulouse in 2012, or the atrocities committed in a Parisian supermarket in January.