“I have agents who protect my family and myself because I am Jewish, it’s crazy,” says host Arthur

The host has had to live under reinforced police protection since the Hamas attack on Israel. “We’re walking on our heads. How do I explain that to my children?” he asked on France Inter on Thursday.

TV host Arthur was one of the first to publicly express his horror after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7. Since then, he has been the victim of massive insults and threats to the point of living under reinforced protection. “We are in France and I have agents who protect my family and myself, because I am Jewish, it is lunar“, deplores Arthur, guest of France Inter this Thursday, November 23 in the morning.

The television man immediately condemned the Hamas attack, supported the hostages and participated in the two demonstrations against anti-Semitism organized in Paris. “To this point, no, I never would have imagined” receiving so many messages of insults and threats, testifies Arthur, who explains having received at one point the equivalent of “1000 messages per minute“.

“There is not a new anti-Semitism, it was there”

The situation was such that “Meta [la maison mère de Facebook et Instagram – Ndlr] was forced to set up a system of keywords on my accounts so that fewer messages arrived (…) ‘decapitated’, ‘death to the Jews’, ‘dirty Jew’.” With humor, he emphasizes that “Now you have to be super creative so that the message reaches me.” On November 6, a 29-year-old man was indicted and placed under judicial supervision in Gironde, suspected of having sent anti-Semitic death threats to Arthur and Cyril Hanouna.

Moreover, “since October 8”who already did not travel without a security agent, saw his daily security system “reinforced”. “It’s 2023. I live in Paris. We are in France and I have agents who protect my family and myself because I’m Jewish, it’s lunar. We’re walking on our heads. How I explain this to my children?”he observes.

The tragedy of October 7 was a turning point for the Jewish community in France according to the host: “I think there are many forms of racism, including anti-Semitism. And anti-Semitism was latent. It is there, there is no new anti-Semitism. It was there. But since October 7, I have the impression that he expresses himself freely, in broad daylight and freely. It’s completely crazy.”

“Few people came to the first demonstration”

Arthur also deplores a lack of support from all French people in the face of the rise in anti-Semitism, in particular “that few people came to march with us at the first demonstration after this massacre.” He explains : “We don’t ask people, ‘Can you confirm that you’re horrified?’ Every naturally constituted person is horrified by what we’ve seen and heard. I just needed to tell them: ‘we, the French of the Jewish faith, now more than ever need to know that you are there, that you are at our side’.”

Support from artists and the world of culture is particularly lacking according to him: “We need everyone we love, who we follow – we go see your films, we buy your records, we go to your concerts – we need for once, it’s you who tells us that you stand by our side. We just need love. To feel your warmth, not to feel alone.”

“If I speak, it is because I am part of a community. There are not many of us. There are not 400,000 French Jews in France. And these French people, they have never felt also alone”he explains “a little angry.”