President Emmanuel Macron has called on the French people to rise up against anti-Jewish acts ahead of a march in the capital to protest against rising antisemitism.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and numerous other politicians are to attend the march on Sunday.
Paris authorities have deployed 3,000 police troops along the route of the protest, which was called by the leaders of the Senate and parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, amid an alarming increase in anti-Jewish acts in France since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas last month.
French authorities have registered more than 1,000 acts against Jews around the country in a month since the conflict in the Middle East began.
In a letter addressed to the French people, Mr Macron vowed that perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished.
“A France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not France,” he said in the letter, published in Le Parisien newspaper.
He called on the country to remain “united behind its values… and work for peace and security for all in the Middle East”.
He noted that 40 French citizens were killed in the initial Hamas attack, and eight remain missing or held hostage.
“To this pain of the nation has been added the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism,” he said.
Mr Macron said he will attend the protest “in my heart and in spirit”, but not in person.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is likely to attend the march amid fierce criticism that her once-pariah National Rally party has failed to shake off its antisemitic heritage despite growing political legitimacy.
As of Saturday, officials counted 1,247 antisemitic acts in France since October 7 – nearly three times as many as for the whole of 2022, according to the Interior Ministry.
