France Is on Edge After Israel-Hamas War Reopens Old Scars

  • War thousands of kilometers away is stoking domestic tensions
  • “Extremely negative atmosphere” prevails: Interior Minister
Armed police patrol near the Gambetta-Carnot public school in Arras, Oct. 14. Photographer: Samuel Aranda/Getty Images
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As home to both the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe, France is feeling the strain of the Israel-Hamas war like no other country on the continent.

Tensions are embroiling everyone from school children to football players in a country with a complicated colonial history in the Middle East and North Africa, one that is suffering the unmistakable reverberations of a conflict that’s pitting Jews against their Muslim neighbors.