Amidst rising anti semitism, Jewish candidate fights for inclusion in France
FRANCE-The customer strolled by the young candidate seeking votes in France’s intense and high-stakes parliamentary election amid market booths piled high with fresh food, but she stopped and turned around to voice her concerns to Shannon Seban.
Can France’s Jewish candidate overcome hate and division?
The 28-year-old candidate, who is Jewish and claims she is increasingly experiencing antisemitism, finds what transpired next to be heartbreakingly familiar in the context of the campaign. Prior to Sunday’s first round of voting, Seban got into a furious argument with the shopper in the Paris neighborhood of Ivry-sur-Seine this week, which seemed to confirm her worries. The candidate interpreted the woman’s accusation that Seban was a Zionist as an insult.
She then brought up Seban’s Jewish beliefs, which infuriated the would-be politician even more as she believes that no one else should know about her religion but herself. The 28-year-old candidate, who is Jewish and claims she is increasingly experiencing antisemitism, finds what transpired next to be heartbreakingly familiar in the context of the campaign. Prior to Sunday’s first round of voting, Seban got into a furious argument with the shopper in the Paris neighborhood of Ivry-sur-Seine this week, which seemed to confirm her worries. The candidate interpreted the woman’s accusation that Seban was a Zionist as an insult. She then brought up Seban’s Jewish beliefs, which infuriated the would-be politician even more as she believes that no one else should know about her religion but herself.
Will the election embolden hate groups or promote unity?
“There’s no place for you here,” the irate customer said to Seban, infuriating the two of them even more. After that, she turned around and vanished back into the throng, murmuring, “You’re a Zionist,” as if it were a curse. Despite making up a small portion of the 66 million people living in mainland France, the roughly half a million Jews have unintentionally entered the electoral fray due to the nation’s deep divisions over the Hamas-Israel conflict and a hotbed of accusations of antisemitism being leveled at one another by opposing parties in the legislative elections.
In an election where President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp is bracing for another possible beating by the far-right National Rally which surged in the European parliament elections on June 9 and by a new coalition of left-wing parties that banded together to avert the possibility of France having its first far-right government since World War II, Jewish voters are agonizing over which option to select. Holocaust survivor and well-known Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, whose father was sent to the Auschwitz death camp and never came back, shocked the campaign by saying he would vote for the National Rally in a run-off between the far left and far right despite the party’s long history of antisemitism. Co-founder of the National Front, the predecessor organization of the National Rally, Jean-Marie Le Pen has a history of racism and antisemitism, including claims that the Nazi death chambers were “just a detail” in World War II.
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According to apnews, Eventually, as part of a makeover to make the party more appealing to mainstream voters, his daughter and successor, Marine Le Pen, had him banished from the party. According to Klarsfeld, who was speaking to the French network LCI, the National Rally has changed and now “supports Jews, supports the state of Israel.” The far-left France Unbowed party, which makes up the majority of the left-wing alliance, is viewed by Klarsfeld as being tainted with antisemitism and “violent anti-Zionism,” he continued. France Unwavering leaders have vehemently denounced Israel’s assault against Hamas and charged the organization with committing genocide against the Palestinian people. However, they have vehemently and frequently refuted charges of antisemitism.
As reported by thespec “Antisemitism has a tragic history in our country that must not be repeated,” reads the left-wing coalition’s platform. We must combat everyone who propagates anti-Semitic sentiment. The National Rally, an anti-immigration group, has long been critical of what it sees as the spread of Islamic religious and cultural influences in France. It frequently targets Muslim women for donning headscarves and draws connections between them and extremist Islamists. Legislation “targeting Islamist ideologies, a genuine totalitarian threat of modern times” is promised in the National Rally’s campaign platform under the heading “Preserving French civilization.”
Boycott Pairs Olympics 2024 due to human rights violation
Unethical behavior with outsiders is very common in France. People who live in France for the sake of money to fulfill their families’ necessities are going through a very tough time. The Olympics are also near. On the basics of racism and human rights violations in France, fans and the public should boycott this event.
