Shootings at Paris Jewish Establishments Condemned: "New Threshold in European Anti-Semitism"

December 29, 2014

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE
Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401
E-mail: csweurope@gmail.com



The French BNVCA (National Counter – Antisemitism Vigilance Bureau) was established in partnership with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in 2001 as “SOS Antisemitism.” Its President, former policeman Sammy Ghozlan, first on the on the scene last week following three shootings at Jewish establishments in Paris, stated, “After attacks on Jewish schools and synagogues have now turned them into fortresses, it is the turn of Jewish businesses to be targeted.”

Photo: Riots in Paris, Summer 2014

This time, three officials, in an otherwise empty synagogue, heard a shot through a nearby windowpane. This was followed by shots, reportedly from the same airgun, at a Jewish print-shop and then a kosher restaurant, all in the Paris 19th district of Belleville.

“The 'Intifada' in France began this summer with threats and assaults on synagogues and Jewish individuals. This escalated recently to armed robbery together with rape. The use of fire-arms crosses a new threshold,” stated Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels. “In the summer, attackers on Jewish property would vandalize the Mezuza prayer scroll affixed to the doorposts. A reliable source then claimed that rioters were urged to leave them in place to identify future targets. Jews are increasingly moving the Mezuza to the interior of their home or business, like Marrano crypt-Jews in medieval Spain,” added Samuels.

Belleville is a colourful mix of Jews, Indo-Chinese and more recently, Muslims. Following a Jihadist motorbiker who, last year, drove into the local underground station to shoot people waiting on the platform, the Indo-Chinese (predominantly Vietnamese)community called an emergency meeting.

The Wiesenthal Centre was consulted after 4,000 young Chinese speaking Vietnamese, in one year left France on contracts in China, Taiwan and Singapore.

“What begins with the Jews never ends with them,” would have said the
late Simon Wiesenthal.

For further information please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels (00) 33 609 70158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).