France’s grief for Hamas’s victims is right – its suspicion of French Muslims is not | Rokhaya Diallo

Events in Israel have inspired renewed public questioning about our true Frenchness' - even that of beloved football stars

France is home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations. Inevitably, what is happening in the Middle East has a particular resonance here. The grotesque images that circulated after Hamas's horrific attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October, planned and carried out in a chillingly meticulous way, sent shockwaves through France that are still reverberating.

A big part of the country's public debate has been fixated, since the massacre, on avoiding the importation" of tensions connected with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a spate of antisemitic incidents, Emmanuel Macron is rightly concerned about the fear gripping our compatriots of the Jewish faith". In a televised address to the nation, he announced a range of measures to tighten protection at Jewish schools and places of worship and culture.

Rokhaya Diallo is a Guardian columnist. She is a writer, journalist, film director and activist

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