The French government is creating a national anti-hate crime office following the discovery of anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner made the announcement Wednesday in the town of Westhoffen, where vandals scrawled swastikas and other anti-Semitic inscriptions on 107 tombs the day before.
Speaking alongside Jewish leaders, Castaner condemned the graffiti as a sign that “hate is on our national territory.”
“We must respect the right to believe,” he said.
A special police unit has begun investigating the incident, Castaner said, and the new national office will seek to fight hate crimes.
The graffiti marked the latest in a string of anti-Semitic acts in the Bas-Rhin region. Anti-Semitic graffiti was also discovered Tuesday in the eastern French village of Schaffhouse-sur-Zorn, authorities said.
France Creates Anti-Hate Crime Office Amid Anti-Semitic Wave
![Strasbourg chief Rabbi Harold Abraham Weill watches vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, west of the city of Strasbourg, eastern France, Dec. 4, 2019.](https://gdb.voanews.com/cd3b9654-ece9-42e0-bf79-d3380674906d_w250_r1_s.jpg)