Paris: The French government will adopt an international organization's definition of anti-Semitism and propose a law to reduce hate speech from being circulated online, French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday.
Macron, speaking at the annual dinner of a Jewish organization, said France and other parts of Europe have seen in recent years "a resurgence of anti-Semitism that is probably unprecedented since World War II."
Macron said applying the working definition of anti-Semitism drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance would help guide police forces, magistrates and teachers in their daily work.
Since the intergovernmental organization approved the wording in 2016, some critics of Israel have said it
could be used suppress Palestinian rights activists. The definition states anti-Semitism can take the form of "denying the Jewish people their right to
self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour."
Macron said he thinks that view is correct.
"Anti-Zionism is one of the modern forms of anti-Semitism," the French leader said in Paris at the dinner of Jewish umbrella organization CRIF. "Behind the negation of Israel's existence, what is hiding is the hatred of Jews."
Macron mentioned anti-Semitism based on "radical Islamism" as a rampant ideology in France's multi-ethnic, poor neighborhoods.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his appreciation at France's adoption of the international definition of anti-Semitism, in a phone call with the French leader ahead of the speech, Netanyahu's office said.
Macron also said his party would introduce legislation in parliament in May to force social media to withdraw hate speech posted online and use all available means to identify the authors "as quickly as possible." He especially denounced Twitter as waiting days, sometimes weeks, to remove hate contents and to help authorities.