French police investigate antisemitic attacks in Paris

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: The Guardian

French police are investigating a spate of antisemitic acts in Paris and the surrounding area in the past few days, as the government announced a 74% rise in the number of antisemitic incidents last year.

In separate incidents in recent days, swastikas were drawn on Paris postboxes bearing portraits of the late politician and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil. The word Juden (German for Jews) was sprayed on the window of a bagel bakery on the Île Saint-Louis in the heart of the capital.

The French government’s special representative on racism, antisemitism and discrimination said the graffiti was sickening.

A tree planted in the southern Paris suburb of Sainte-Genevieve-du-Bois in memory of a young Jewish man who was tortured to death in 2006 was also chopped down, authorities said.

“Antisemitism is spreading like poison,” the interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said near the spot where the tree was vandalised. “By attacking … Ilan Halimi’s memory, it’s the Republic that’s being attacked,” he said, vowing that the government would take action.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/12/french-police-investigate-antisemitic-attacks-in-paris-simone-veil

[leftynyc]

1. So many French Jews

Leaving. British too. I don't blame them.

[jcmaine72]

2. Europe is on the cusp of something horrible.

I hope I'm dead wrong, but there seems to be a storm brewing there of catastrophic proportions. I wouldn't be surprised if, when all is said and done, this century yields more bloodshed on that continent that the last one did.

[leftynyc]

3. That's depressing to contemplate

Humans only seem to be able to learn lessons for a short period of time. The old hatreds always return. But this time, we have a place to go.