A clash by anti-Israel residents and pedestrians outside a Jewish-owned Strasbourg bakery on Saturday drew outrage from French politicians, with some suggesting that the incident was indicative of a broader issue in French society.
The Dreher bakery itself wasn't attacked or targeted, according to officials, but video of an encounter between anti-Israel activists and other residents outside the shop circulated on social media showed a mass of Palestinian flag-waving protesters surrounding the site.
Police could be seen standing between the protesters and the shop. The original poster of the video also confirmed in a Sunday X post that the target was a pro-Israel opponent of the march, not the bakery.
Strasbourg : Actuellement la boulangerie Dreher est prise pour cible par une foule d’islamiste palestinien en colère car elle est considéré comme israélienne. pic.twitter.com/hhIoqFVos1
— Wolf (@PsyGuy007) April 13, 2025
A march had been planned on Saturday by Collectif Strasbourg Palestine, according to the group's Instagram account. The protest route detailed in a Thursday Rue89 Strasbourg report would have brought the march past the bakery.
French politicians respond
Equality Minister Aurore Berge condemned the incident on X, calling for all of society to act, noting that anti-Zionism had become the new face of the antisemitic prejudice that had killed so many in France in recent years.
Republicains Bouches-du-Rhône senator Valérie Boyer despaired on X Sunday that France had "fallen so low" that Jewish businesses were being targeted in Strasbourg.
"The list of anti-Semitic atrocities displaying the Palestinian flag is far too long," said Boyer. "It is urgent and vital that this stops and quickly!"
National Rally MEP Virginie Joron said on X that every Saturday the city center of Strasbourg was "taken hostage" and the municipality was doing nothing to protect shopkeepers and passers-by.