Living with armed soldiers in the streets has become the new reality for French Jews, according to a Tuesday report by Agence France-Presse.
The shocking rise in anti-Semitic attacks in France has seen a remarkable 84 percent increase between January and May, 2015, compared to the same time period in 2014. It is believed that as many as 9,000 Jews left France in 2015 as a response to increased anti-Semitism, a record high for the country.
“There has been a real breaking point. Now we know we can be killed while doing our grocery shopping, or walking in the street,” says Samuel, a regular at the kosher store attacked by Islamic terrorists a year ago, to AFP.
The plight of French Jews made headlines last January when Hyper Cacher, a popular Parisian kosher supermarket, came under attack just days after the assault on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by radical Islamic terrorists. Amedy Coulibaly stormed the market and killed four Jewish shoppers. Coulibaly also murdered a French police officer the day before his assault on the market. He claimed he coordinated his attacks with the Kourachi brothers who were responsible for the Charlie Hebdo massacre. In response, the French government posted 700 soldiers across the country to protect Jewish neighborhoods from further attacks. The soldiers will have been in place for one year this month.
“It is disgusting that we have gotten to the point in France where French Jews have to live under constant armed guard for their own safety,” says Adam Turner, Legislative Affairs Director for the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a think-tank which follows anti-Semitic activity, speaking to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Unless the French government gets serious about policing the Islamist radicals in its midst, I fear their is no solution to this problem,” he continues.
France is home to 500,000 Jews, the third largest Jewish population in the world. However, that number is dwindling as the Jewish population continues to leave France.
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