This is paywalled article from Le Monde. It's really, really distressing.
What happened on Saturday, June 15, in the northwestern Paris suburb of Courbevoie? On Tuesday, three teenagers aged between 12 and 13 were charged, as part of a judicial investigation, with "aggravated rape, aggravated sexual assault, attempted extortion, invasion of privacy, death threats, violence and insults, the latter two offenses being aggravated (...) because of the victim's religious affiliation." They are suspected of assaulting a 12-year-old Jewish girl. The news drew strong reactions from the Jewish community and unanimous condemnation from politicians.
The account of the girl's "ordeal," as the police officers called it in their report seen by Le Monde, is unbearable. The document recounts the victim's statements and the observations made by police officers at the scene of the alleged events.
It happened on Saturday, June 15, when the girl, S. (all initials have been changed), who will be 13 in a month's time, left her family's home to meet her friend R. at 1 pm. They spent almost two hours together in a Courbevoie park, before R. walked his friend to a square near her home. It was at this point that S. ran into three other boys, two of them barely older than her.
P., who appeared to be the leader of the group, ordered her to stay with them and, when the girl refused, fearing that her parents would be worried about her coming home late, he became even more insistent. He then grabbed her arm and dragged her toward a vast 1,000-square-meter building, an out-of-use crèche, where the "ordeal" began.
According to the girl's account, P. began by asking her about her religion – her family is Jewish – and in particular why she had "hidden" it. "She said she wanted to protect herself to avoid any aggression," write the officers, who returned to the scene that evening with the victim. At that point, they began to hit and insult her. She told the police they called her a "dirty Jew."
'Horror'
According to the police report, she was thrown to the ground, her hair pulled back, a lighter lit next to her cheek, then a bag containing her identity documents was burnt and a bottle of water was emptied onto her body. At the scene, forensic investigators found a bottle and charred debris. She was undressed "by force" and raped several times. After that, the police write, the young man who appeared throughout the account to be the leader of the trio "threatened the victim with death if she spoke to the police" and asked to meet her at 4 pm the following day, ordering her to hand over a sum of €200, "or else something bad would happen to her and her family."
French government launches conference to combat mounting anti-Semitism. The girl told police she eventually returned to her family home at around 6 pm, an hour and a half after her mother had raised the alarm by calling the police. She was given medical attention. "During their first interrogation," the Nanterre prosecutor's office said in a statement released on Wednesday, June 19, "the three minors made brief spontaneous statements, expressing regrets for the victim without going into their involvement in the events."
This news plunged the Jewish community into "horror," said the president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi. "What strikes me," he said, "is the way in which the Jews of France are now assigned to Israel. What strikes me is the very young age of the authors. What strikes me is that certain political discourses have made Jews legitimate targets. Today, hatred of Israel serves as a very assertive fuel for anti-Semitism, and it's the youngest generations who are the most permeable."
Spike in anti-Semitic acts
The upsurge of anti-Semitic acts by young people is a phenomenon observed by the French Institute of Public Opinion and the Foundation for Political Innovation in their study entitled "Radiography of anti-Semitism in 2024". Published in April, the study reveals that 35% of 18-24 year-olds believe it is justified to attack Jews because of their support for Israel, compared with 18% among 35-49 year-olds, for example.
"When political leaders campaign for months on the Palestinian question using anti-Zionism, which leads to anti-Semitism, it imprints on young people and now on children," said Elie Korchia, the president of the Israelite Central Consistory of France, referring to the radical left party La France Insoumise's campaign for the European elections. On Wednesday, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said he was "horrified by this rape in Courbevoie and everything it highlights about the conditioning of criminal male behavior from an early age, and of anti-Semitic racism."
These "sordid" events come as anti-Semitic acts soared in France in the first quarter of 2024. According to government statistics, "366 anti-Semitic acts" were recorded between January and March, up 300% on the first three months of 2023. In January, the CRIF reported a sharp increase in anti-Semitic acts in France, which it said quadrupled in one year from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, with an "explosion" after October 7, the date of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.