Anti-Semitic Riots in Paris – Again
Anti-semitic violence flared again in France this weekend as shops were looted and a synagogue targeted in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles. Eighteen youths were arrested after the rampage in which French media showed images of, among other things, a burned-out front of a kosher grocery store. It was one of several looted on Sunday and was also the target of a militant grenade attack two years before.
Youths fought with police, vehicles were burned and widespread looting extended to non-Jewish targets. While protests elsewhere in France went ahead peacefully and with government authorization, some protesters and Socialist politicians were critical of the government for not issuing a permit for a protest in Sarcelles. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve reiterated that permits for any future rallies would continue to be considered case by case. Sarcelles is a mixed area with a large Jewish population.
With people in the streets shouting “Death to Jews” and one Paris synagogue being firebombed, Francois Pupponi, the mayor of Sarcelles, said the Jewish people of his town are in fear. The anti-semitic rampage was marked by stones and bottles being thrown at riot police, who in turn responded with tear gas. During a visit to the synagogue in Sarcelles, Cazeneuve rejected those that have belittled the ban. He said that, contrary to critics, earlier violence is exactly what prompted the ban, rather than the ban having prompted the violence.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/07/anti-semitic-riots-in-paris-again/