Crif - April Benayoum, Miss Provence 2020, targeted by antisemitic insults

On December 19th, during the annual Miss France election ceremony, April Benayoum was the target of antisemitic comments because of her origins, in particular on the social network Twitter. Crif reacted immediately and strongly condemned these antisemitics messages. The Crif has initiated legal proceedings.

On Saturday, December 19th took place Miss France contest. During the evening, Miss Provence 2020, April Benayoum, was the victim of many virulent antisemitic messages on social medias.

Crif, notably through its president Francis Kalifat, immediately reacted. Francis Kalifat seized Crif's lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminsky, in order to initiate legal proceedings.

#Crif - Les propos antisémites à l'encontre de @AprilBenayoum sont ignobles et inacceptables !
Toutes les occasions sont visiblement bonnes pour diffuser la haine des juifs et d'Israël. @TwitterFrance doit prendre ses responsabilités face à ces contenus haineux. #MissFrance

— CRIF (@Le_CRIF) December 20, 2020

Candidate for the Miss France election, April Benayoum was the victim of hateful tweets following the evocation of her origins, and in particular by specifying the Israeli roots of her father during her speech. It's intolerable.

Crif called on Twitter to take responsibility for these hateful contents, certainly moderate, but belatedly, which allowed a wide distribution of these ignoble words.

The Crif was also in contact with Twitter to have more information on the management and moderation of this surge of antisemitic hatred, which occurred on Saturday evening.

The official reactions of support for April have been overwhelming. The TF1 channel, as well as the organization Miss France and the production company Endemol condemned the comments published against the young woman and supported her.

Several elected officials denounced these unacceptable hateful comments.

Hatred have not had the last word since Miss Provence was elected first runner-up in the competition!