Scores of Jewish graves were found desecrated in a cemetery in eastern France, police said, hours before lawmakers adopted a resolution equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, reports The Irish Times.
Some 107 graves were defaced with anti-Semitic inscriptions in [the village of] Westhoffen, while graffiti against Jews was also found in nearby Schafhouse-sur-Zorn on Tuesday.
France has Europe’s biggest Jewish community – around 550,000 – and anti-Semitic attacks are common, with more than 500 alone in 2018.
Earlier this year, politicians from across the spectrum joined marches against anti-Semitism.
They denounced a surge in attacks that some commentators blamed on incitement by Islamist preachers, others on the rise of anti-Zionism – opposition to the existence of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people.
Lawmakers in the French parliament’s lower house on Tuesday evening approved a non-legally binding resolution modelled on the definition of anti-Semitism set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
The IHRA definition, which serves as an international guideline, does not reference “anti-Zionism” but does say denying Jews their right to self-determination is anti-Semitic.
Read more of this Reuters report published by The Irish Times.