A Pakistani student wears a headband with the words 'kill jews,' during an anti-war rally at a university in Islamabad, March 26, 2003. The students of Quaid-i-Azam University gathered on Wednesday to protest against the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web s
PARIS, March 27 (AFP) - Tensions in the Middle East led to an "explosion" in anti-Semitic incidents in France in 2002, the government's human rights watchdog said Thursday.
In its annual report on racism in France, the National Consultative Committee on Human Rights (CNCDH) said there had been a six-fold increase over 2001 in acts of violence against Jewish property and persons. Of 313 acts of racist violence documented in 2002, 193 were anti-Semitic, it said.
"If the increase in the number of attacks aimed at the immigrant community is significant, the quantity of attacks aimed at the Jewish commmunity has truly exploded," the CNCDH reported.
In a second category of racist acts - threats, graffiti and insults - 731 out of 992 incidents were aimed at the Jewish community, according to the report. Most of the other incidents were directed at the North African immigrant community.
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