French Socialist lawmaker Jérôme Guedj found himself at the center of an ugly confrontation on April 27, as he faced a barrage of anti-Semitic jeers during a rally meant to denounce Islamophobia.
Attendees at the demonstration, meant to honor a victim of a recent mosque killing, turned hostile toward Guedj, booing and hurling insults like, “Get out! PS Zionist party! We don’t respect trash like you!” Shocking footage of the incident quickly made the rounds on social media, stirring outrage across France’s political landscape.
Breaking his silence the next day, a visibly shaken Guedj spoke about feeling as if he’d been “dragged back to [his] origins,” describing the slurs as barely veiled anti-Semitism. “Let’s not kid ourselves,” he said. “When I heard ‘dirty Zionist,’ it carried a much darker undertone.”
Protesters accused Guedj and his Socialist colleagues of allegedly fostering Islamophobia in France — a charge that Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure swiftly rejected. “Unbearable,” Faure posted on X. “Jérôme Guedj had every right to march against Islamophobia. Fighting hatred by sowing more hatred only plays into the far right’s hands.”
The rally was sparked by the brutal murder of Aboubakar Cissé, a young African man fatally stabbed on April 25 at a mosque in La Grand-Combe, a small village in southern France. Guedj said he attended the demonstration to defend the spirit of French universalism — a principle he refuses to abandon even when tensions run high.
“I could’ve stayed home, sure, but that would’ve hurt more,” he told reporters. “Aboubakar’s death moved me deeply. We need solidarity, not more division. We can mourn the victims of October 7, we can care about Gaza, and we can grieve for Aboubakar — all at once.”
Guedj stressed that attacks on any religious group — be they Muslim, Catholic, or Jewish — undermine the very foundation of the Republic. “The Republic is wounded when any one of us is attacked,” he said. “And we must never let anyone stand alone.”
