PARIS, Nov 13, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron on Monday hosted religious

leaders for talks on combatting anti-Semitism in France, a day after a Paris march

rallied tens of thousands to express anxiety over an upsurge in acts against Jews.

There have been growing tensions in France, home to large Muslim and Jewish

communities, as war rages in the Gaza Strip between Palestinian militant group Hamas

and Israel.

Macron had urged the religious leaders to make an "educational effort to increase the

number of measures addressed to young people," Catholic bishops' conference head Eric

de Moulins-Beaufort told reporters after the meeting.
"The president's aim, which of course we will help pass on, is to spread this

message," said Elie Korchia, president of France's Central Israelite Consistory.

"Many young people no longer necessarily read the press, no longer watch TV, sometimes

they're shut up in a language of their own, without reaching out to others," he added.

Monday's talks were a "continuation of the appeal for national unity and brotherhood"

Macron had made in a letter published on Saturday in daily Le Parisien, his Elysee

Palace office said ahead of the meeting.

France has seen an upsurge in anti-Semitic acts since Hamas's bloody October 7 attack

on Israel killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and Israel's response in the

Gaza Strip, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 11,000,

mostly civilians and many of them children.

Macron wrote that "a France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not

France", calling on people to rally around the country's "values" and "universalism".

- 'No victimhood contest' -
While the presidency did not release an exact guest list for Monday's gathering,

France's chief rabbi Haim Korsia and rector of the Paris Grand Mosque Chems-Eddine

Hafiz were also present alongside leaders representing the Orthodox church, Buddhism

and Protestantism.

Sunday's march "should have been made into a battle against racism, that was

important," Hafiz said, arguing that as well as "a real increase in anti-Semitism,"

France has seen "an outburst of remarks made against Muslims".

Nevertheless, "I don't want to get into a victimhood contest," he added.

Over 180,000 people turned out across France on Sunday according to police figures,

105,000 of them in Paris, to join marches "for the republic and against anti-

Semitism".

Macron himself has been criticised for staying away from the march.

Jordan Bardella, head of the far-right National Rally (RN) -- which controversially

joined the column -- told broadcaster RTL Monday that the president had "missed a

rendez-vous with history".

Sylvain Maillard, leader of Macron's party in the National Assembly lower house,

defended the president, telling Sud Radio that "a president's place isn't at a

demonstration".

Macron "will be judged on how effective state action against anti-Semitism is, rather

than his presence at the head of a one-day demonstration," political commentator

Guillaume Tabard wrote in conservative daily Le Figaro.
- 'Urge Israel to stop' -

Macron has also been rebuked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after criticising

Israel's extensive bombing campaign in Gaza in a weekend interview with the BBC.

"Civilians are bombed... these babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and

killed... there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to

stop," he said.

The French leader's office said late Sunday that he had spoken with Israeli President

Isaac Herzog by phone in an apparent bid to calm the waters.

Macron "again expressed his solidarity with Israel in the face of the horror of the

terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas" and "reiterated Israel's right to defend

itself and repeated France's solidarity with Israel," the Elysee said.