PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday decried a resurgence of the ″demons of antisemitism″ that have darkened France’s past and present.
The French leader and others were inaugurating a statue honoring Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, whose wrongful 19th century treason conviction exposed deeply rooted anti-Jewish bias in France. Sunday marked 120 years since Dreyfus’ exoneration by France’s highest court, where the statue now stands.
Hours before the ceremony, police evacuated about 300 people from the Paris suburb of Sarcelles because intelligence services identified a suspicious vehicle containing a military weapon near a synagogue. Sarcelles has a significant Jewish population, and prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the vehicle contained a ″long military weapon″ and it’s unclear whether the weapon was meant to target Jews.
France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish population and saw a surge in antisemitic acts, including threats, vandalism and physical violence after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, accused Macron of fueling antisemitism by formally recognizing Palestine last year.
“We know that the old demons of antisemitism have never completely disappeared from our country,″ the French president said at Sunday’s ceremony for Dreyfus, calling for constant vigilance to prevent acts that ″target people because of who they are.″
Dreyfus, who was Jewish, was convicted of treason in 1894 after being falsely accused of passing military secrets to Germany and sentenced to life imprisonment. Prominent intellectuals, famously including novelist Emile Zola, argued that Dreyfus had been made a scapegoat by the French military.
He was cleared of all charges on July 12, 1906, by the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court. Macron declared July 12 to be a national day of commemoration of Dreyfus’ innocence, starting this year.
After he was exonerated, Dreyfus rejoined the French army and served in World War I. He died in 1935.
Dreyfus’ 99-year-old grandson, Charles, was among those attending Sunday’s ceremony.
“I must sadly admit that I would not have imagined, at my age, seeing antisemitism resurface with such virulence in our country,″ Charles Dreyfus said.
But his sorrow, he said, was tempered by what he called ″the deep joy″ at seeing his grandfather’s statue erected outside the Palace of Justice, depicting Dreyfus proudly wielding a broken sword.
Macpherson writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Angela Charlton contributed to this report.