Three French synagogues attacked

Three French synagogues attacked
ASSOCIATED FRANCE PRESSE

OCT 14: Three synagogues in the Paris suburbs were attacked overnight Friday to Saturday, the latest in a spate of strikes against synagogues and Jewish buildings as tension in Israel and the Palestinian territories spills over into France. North of Paris, the synagogue in the suburb of Bagnolet was damaged in an arson attack while an incendiary device was lobbed at the synagogue in Noisy-le-Sec but caused no damage, police said.

In the southeastern suburbs, police said the synagogue in Chevilly-Larue, southeast of Paris, was slightly damaged by a Molotov cocktail hurled at the facade late Friday. Another Molotov cocktail that failed to explode was found in the street and two others in the grounds of a nursery school next to the synagogue.

The attacks came as police decided Friday to step up patrols around synagogues and other Jewish buildings. As community leaders appealed for calm, Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant said that security, tightened already for the Yom Kippur Jewish holiday last Monday, would be "reinforced further," and about 1,000 extra police were drafted in.

There have been more than 20 attacks against synagogues and Jewish schools and buildings across France in the last week in what Jewish leaders describe as unprecedented acts of anti-Semitism since World War II.

In one French city, vandals scrawled swastikas and the words "Arbeit Macht Frei", which were displayed at the entrance to concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Police reported a rash of anti-Semitic graffiti in schools, in entrance halls to buildings, and in Parisian metro stations.

Meanwhile, Jews in outlying city suburbs reported attempts to burn down their Front doors. Police said they had very few reports of acts of violence committed against France's Muslim community. Two incendiary devices were placed in Front of a Muslim butcher's shop in Paris. One had a Star of David attached to it. France's Jewish and Arab communities have in general enjoyed good relations, both conscious of a shared experience of discrimination, but leaders have warned that the violence between Palestinians and Israelis in the Palestinian territories was stoking up dangerous tensions.