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Mireille Knoll: Crowds jeer French far-right, far-left leaders after 'anti-Semitic' murder | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
France's far-right and far-left leaders have been booed during a Paris rally after a Jewish woman was killed in what is being treated as anti-Semitic crime. | |
Marine Le Pen of the National Front (FN) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Unbowed joined the silent march, defying wishes of Jewish groups. | |
The groups accuse the two parties of having anti-Semites in their ranks - a claim denied by both organisations. | |
Mireille Knoll, 85, was stabbed and then burnt in her Paris flat on Friday. | |
As a child in 1942, she evaded the notorious Vel d'Hiv round up of some 13,000 Jews in Paris, who were then deported to Nazi death camps. | As a child in 1942, she evaded the notorious Vel d'Hiv round up of some 13,000 Jews in Paris, who were then deported to Nazi death camps. |
Two men have been held and placed under formal investigation over her murder. | Two men have been held and placed under formal investigation over her murder. |
A police source told French media that one of those detained had previously been convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl who had been staying at Mireille Knoll's flat. | A police source told French media that one of those detained had previously been convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl who had been staying at Mireille Knoll's flat. |
She had also complained to police that a neighbour had threatened to set fire to her home, according to reports. | She had also complained to police that a neighbour had threatened to set fire to her home, according to reports. |
On Wednesday, Ms Le Pen and Mr Mélenchon met a hostile reception from a number of protesters marching from Paris's Place de la Nation to Ms Knoll's apartment in the east of the French capital. | |
The two political leaders had to leave the rally as tensions threatened to boil over. Ms Le Pen later rejoined the protest, the AFP reports. | |
Ahead of the rally, Crif, an umbrella organisation of France's Jewish groups, asked the far-right and far-left politicians not to join the event. | |
"Anti-Semites are over-represented in the far-left and the far-right, making those parties ones that you don't want to be associated with," Crif director Francis Kalifat told RTL radio. | |
"Therefore they are not welcome," he added. | |
Ms Le Pen - whose father and predecessor as FN leader, Jean-Marie, is a convicted Holocaust denier - was quoted by the AFP as saying that Crif leaders "have got the wrong enemy". | |
"We've been fighting Islamist anti-Semitism for years," she added. | |
Several senior government members took part in the protest. | |
President Emmanuel Macron attended Ms Knoll's funeral earlier in the day. | President Emmanuel Macron attended Ms Knoll's funeral earlier in the day. |
France's Jewish community has voiced increasing concern over a rise in violent anti-Semitic acts in the country. | France's Jewish community has voiced increasing concern over a rise in violent anti-Semitic acts in the country. |
Last month, a judge confirmed that the murder last year of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman who was beaten and thrown out of her window, was driven by anti-Semitism. | Last month, a judge confirmed that the murder last year of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman who was beaten and thrown out of her window, was driven by anti-Semitism. |
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