The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the authors of online anti-Semitic comments directed against the number two for Miss France 2021
PARIS – The Paris prosecutor’s office on Monday opened an investigation into the authors of online anti-Semitic comments targeting Miss France 2021 number two, who is of Israeli descent.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin led the high-profile condemnation of the comments, saying he was “deeply shocked by the rain of anti-Semitic insults” and that police were mobilized to investigate.
April Benayoum, 21, came second in the Miss France pageant that aired on Saturday, but her moment in the spotlight was quickly tainted. In an interview on the set, she mentioned her Israeli roots. A wave of abuse followed on Twitter, including tweets evoking the Holocaust.
Benayoum, who won Miss Provence before competing at the national level, was born to a Serbo-Croat mother and an Israeli father. In response to the online comments, she told the regional French newspaper Var-Matin: “It is sad to witness such behavior in 2020.” She said she also received numerous statements of support.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it has opened an investigation into allegations of racist public insults and incitement to racial hatred. French Citizenship Minister Marlene Schiappa said the investigation is “a strong message” to the victims of such abuse and shows that online hate speech “is not harmless”.
Benayoum and anti-racism groups have also filed lawsuits. The French Council of Jewish Representative Institutions, or CRIF, urged Twitter to “take responsibility,” saying it took the social network’s moderators too long to remove the insulting comments. CRIF said it had asked Twitter for more information on how it handled the matter.
Pageant organizers condemned the abuse, saying it was “totally contrary to the values of the channel, the production and the show.”
Amandine Petit, crowned Miss France, told BFM TV that the comments were “inappropriate” and “extremely disappointing”.
The Union of Jewish Students in France said that “Miss France 2021 is no longer a beauty pageant, it is an anti-Semitism contest.”
Other groups noted that anti-Semitic comments are common online, but mostly go unpunished.
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Angela Charlton contributed.