From the DW:
“France to open hate crime office
after Jewish cemetery vandalized”
The Interior Ministry said it
will have a dedicated bureau for tackling hate crimes after more than 100
Jewish graves were desecrated. Anti-Semitic incidents rose some 74% from 2017
to 2018, according to police reports. France's Interior Ministry vowed on
Wednesday to create a dedicated office for combatting hate crimes after more
than 100 Jewish graves were found desecrated at a cemetery near the city of
Strasbourg. "The republic itself has been desecrated," said Interior
Minister Christophe Castaner (above center) said after a visit to the
16-century cemetery. "Hatred has struck, there is hatred on our national
territory. "We will do everything so that the people who have done this
are convicted," he added. The incident occurred overnight on Tuesday in
the town of Westhoffen, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Strasbourg, in
the northeast region of Alsace. Some 107 graves were smeared with either
swastikas or other forms of anti-Semitic graffiti. The cemetery is most notable
for housing the tombs of Karl Marx's ancestors as well as those of Leon Blum, a
French former prime minister. "You will never wipe away our memory or our
identity, neither with your paint or whatever you use," said Harold
Abraham Weill, the grand rabbi of Strasbourg. According to national statistics,
police reports of anti-Semitic incidents rose 74% in 2018 compared to the
previous year, prompting widespread concern in the country with the largest
Jewish population in the European Union. "Jews are and make France,"
President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter Tuesday. "Those who attack
them, even their graves, are not worthy of the idea we have of France." "Anti-Semitism
is a crime and we will fight it in Westhoffen as everywhere until our dead can
sleep in peace," he added.
^ Every country in the world should
have a Hate Crimes Department/Ministry since hate crimes have only increased
around the world. ^
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