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The Paris office of El Al, Israel’s national flag carrier, was defaced on Wednesday night in a brazen act of antisemitic vandalism, with the phrase “El Al genocide airline” spray-painted in red across the building’s exterior.
Though the office was unoccupied at the time, the incident prompted El Al to withdraw its employees from the French capital as a security precaution.
El Al described the incident as “a harsh anti-Israel attack” and confirmed that it was working with law enforcement in both France and Israel to address the matter. “El Al proudly flies the Israeli flag on the tails of its planes and condemns all forms of violence, especially antisemitic violence,” the airline said in a statement.
During a visit to the scene on Thursday, Israeli Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka blamed “antisemitic criminals” for the incident.
“We will do everything, in collaboration with the French authorities, to identify the culprits and bring them to justice,” he said.
Je me suis rendu ce matin devant les bureaux d’El Al à Paris, qui ont été vandalisés cette nuit par des criminels antisémites, cherchant à faire passer des messages violents à la population israélienne hors de son pays, pour lui signifier qu’elle n’est pas la bienvenue.
Le… pic.twitter.com/ZyL68xYQOL
— Joshua L. Zarka (@yzarka) August 7, 2025
French Minister for Transport Philippe Tabarot posted on X, “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the acts of vandalism targeting the offices of the Israeli airline El Al last night in Paris. I offer my full support to the El Al teams. Acts of hatred and antisemitism have no place in our Republic.”
Je condamne avec la plus grande fermeté les actes de vandalisme visant les locaux de la compagnie israélienne El Al la nuit dernière, à Paris.
J’apporte tout mon soutien aux équipes d’El Al. Les actes de haine et d’antisémitisme n’ont pas leur place dans notre République.
— Philippe Tabarot (@PhilippeTabarot) August 7, 2025
Tabarot’s Israeli counterpart, Miri Regev, warned that the political climate in France was emboldening extremist actions. “Today it’s El Al, tomorrow it’s Air France,” she wrote. “When French President [Emmanuel] Macron makes declarations that give gifts to Hamas, this is the result.”
French-Israeli relations have deteriorated sharply in recent months. President Macron’s recent declaration that France would recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September was widely criticized by Israeli leaders and Jewish organizations around the world.
The El Al office vandalism comes as France experiences a dramatic surge in antisemitic hate crimes since October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Across Europe, antisemitic threats are escalating, public spaces are growing increasingly hostile to Jews, and governments are failing to draw clear lines between legitimate protest and hate-fueled incitement.
Just two months ago, five Jewish-linked sites in Paris — including a national Holocaust memorial, three synagogues, and an Israeli restaurant — were vandalized with green paint.
According to the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), 1,570 antisemitic incidents were reported across France in 2024 — following a record-breaking 1,676 in 2023. These figures reflect a stark and sustained rise in Jew-hatred, up from just 436 incidents in 2022.
Alarmingly, CRIF reports that more than 65% of last year’s antisemitic incidents targeted individuals directly, with over 10% involving physical violence.
Earlier this summer, following two assaults on French Rabbi Elie Lemmel, Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Advisor on European Affairs Shannon Seban commented, “What can I say? It’s like a bad movie… but it’s true. An unbearable reality, where not a day goes by without news of a new antisemitic attack. An antisemitism that is becoming commonplace, almost ‘trendy’ in certain circles, fueled and trivialized by a segment of the political class. It is high time that the fight against antisemitism be elevated to a major national cause. Before it’s too late.”
