A Jewish cemetery in France has been vandalised mere hours before marches and gatherings against anti-Semitism were set to take place across the country.

Key points: Anti-Semitism in France reached a climax last weekend during the yellow vest protests

Anti-Semitism in France reached a climax last weekend during the yellow vest protests Political parties across the spectrum called for protesters to rally and unite in Paris

Political parties across the spectrum called for protesters to rally and unite in Paris There were 541 registered anti-Semitic incidents last year, up 311 per cent from 2017

Swastikas and anti-Semitic phrases were spray-painted onto headstones and across the gate that leads into the graveyard.

Authorities said 90 graves in all were desecrated overnight, in the eastern town of Quatzenheim, near Strasbourg, France.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the cemetery on Tuesday following the overnight desecration.

"It's important for me to be here with you today," a solemn-looking Mr Macron told local leaders and members of the Jewish community after paying respects at one of the desecrated graves.

The vandalism is the most recent in a spate of anti-Semitic acts that have sent shockwaves through France.

Eighty graves in a Jewish cemetery near Strasbourg, France were reportedly desecrated. ( Reuters: Vincent Kessler )

Answering a call from political parties, thousands of protesters and several Government members were expected to take to the streets on Tuesday (local time).

The upsurge in anti-Semitism in France, home to the world's largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, reached a climax last weekend with a torrent of hate speech directed at prominent philosopher Alain Finkielkraut during a march of yellow vest anti-Government protesters.

It came days after the Government reported a huge rise in incidents of anti-Semitism last year. There were 541 registered incidents, up 74 per cent from the 311 registered in 2017.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe will lead the Government delegation at the famed Republic Square.

France Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called anti-Semitism "deeply rooted in French society". ( AP: Francois Mori )

In addition to the marches, National Assembly president Richard Ferrand and the head of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, will hold a moment of silence at the Shoah memorial in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron is not expected to attend, but will deliver a speech at Wednesday's annual dinner by leading Jewish group CRIF.

"Anti-Semitism is deeply rooted in French society. We would like to think otherwise, but it is a fact," Mr Philippe told L'Express magazine this week.

"We must be totally determined, I would say almost enraged, in our will to fight, with a clear awareness that this fight is an old one and will last a long time."

'A low-intensity war'

In other incidents this month, swastika graffiti was found on street portraits of Simone Veil — a survivor of Nazi death camps and a European Parliament president who died in 2017 — the word "Juden" ("Jews" in German) was painted on the window of a bagel restaurant in Paris and two trees planted at a memorial honouring a young Jewish man tortured to death in 2006 were vandalised, one cut down.

Last Friday, two youths were arrested after they allegedly fired shots at a synagogue with an air rifle in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, where a large Jewish community lives.

Sarcelles mayor Patrick Haddad told BFMTV on Tuesday that prosecutors consider the motive to be anti-Semitism.

There have been numerous incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism and intimidation across France this month. ( AP: Francois Mori )

Political parties from across the spectrum will unite in Paris, but Marine Le Pen's far-right party will hold a separate event.

According to sociologist Danny Trom, author of the book "France Without Jews", thousands of Jewish people leave France every year because the rise of anti-Semitism.

"This is a low-intensity war, perhaps, but let's not forget the murder of children killed at close range by Mohamed Merah in a school," Mr Trom told French culture magazine Telerama, referring to the murder in 2012 of three children and a teacher from a Jewish school by an Islamic extremist in the south-western city of Toulouse.

"It is without equivalent in the history of France," he said.

"Jews have been present in France since the dawn of times. Now, the pressure is such that they are led to consider their country inhospitable."

AP/ABC