Arsonists attack Jewish cemetery in France
By Yair Sheleg and DPA
A Jewish community member showing several holy books yesterday, damaged by an attack on a Brussels synagogue.
(Photo: Reuters)
Unknown arsonists started a fire late Monday at the Jewish cemetery in a suburb of Strasbourg, police said Tuesday.
Firefighters doused two wooden doors which had been set on fire at the cemetery in Schiltenheim, they said, adding that an investigation was underway.
Security at synagogues in several cities in France had been tightened Monday after a series of attacks on Jewish facilities. The French and Belgian authorities has promised to beef up security and Betar, the right-wing youth movement, is calling for volunteers.
Police in France stepped up security nationwide at Jewish religious sites after an arson attack in Marseille. It was the third attack on a synagogue at the weekend. Authorities declined to comment on the cause of the fire and had not arrested any suspects. LCI television said the building was doused with gasoline and set alight.
The 20-year-old synagogue in the center of a Marseilles housing project was gutted, with only a sunken roof and a charred facade remaining. "All the religious objects - Torah, books, were all burned," said Sydney Maimoun, the synagogue president. "There's really nothing left." Last October, assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at the same synagogue.
French President Jacques Chirac vowed to "find and severely punish" those responsible for the fire. He visited a synagogue in the northern port city of Le Havre yesterday to show his solidarity with the Jewish community. Officials, meanwhile, urged the French people, particularly the Arab community, not to vent their anger at home over the situation in the Middle East. The Mediterranean port city of Marseilles has a large population of Arabs and other Muslims.
"Our fight is a national fight," Leila Shahid, the Palestinian Authority's representative in France told France-Info radio. It is "unacceptable to attack Jewish religious sites or Jewish places of commerce in France or elsewhere."
Roger Cukierman, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Groups, known as CRIF, denounced what he called "complacency toward these acts of violence," and urged the government to show "a true will to fight such anti-Semitism." He called on the government to provide round-the-clock protection for synagogues "during this sensitive period," and step up protection at Jewish schools right after the Passover holiday. But Cukierman stopped short of demanding government protection for privately-owned Jewish businesses, like restaurants and kosher shops.
Vandals set fire to two other synagogues in France over the weekend, one in the eastern city of Strasbourg and the other in southeastern Lyon. Both blazes were put out before serious damage was done. In the Lyon attack early Saturday, hooded assailants crashed two cars through the synagogue's main gate and then set fire to one of the vehicle's inside the temple's prayer hall.
A Jewish school was broken into over the weekend in Sarcelles, in the Val d'Oise region north of Paris, police said yesterday. The same school was robbed in July. On Sunday, a gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop near Toulouse, in southern France. The owner was inside at the time of the attack but unharmed.
And Le Journal du Dimanche, a Sunday newspaper, reported that a Jewish couple in their 20s suffered injuries from an attack Saturday afternoon in the town of Villeurbanne, in the Rhone region. The young woman is pregnant and was hospitalized after the attack, according to French news media reports.
French Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant said in a statement yesterday that police were fully mobilized and were hunting the perpetrators. He ordered tougher security at all cultural and religious sites. National police issued a statement saying that security had been reinforced at Jewish houses of worship, particularly in Paris, Marseille and Strasbourg.
The wave of anti-Jewish attacks in France first broke out in 2000 after the intifada erupted and this weekend's attacks coincided with the escalation of the violence in Israel and the occupied territories. A book published this month by a leading French anti-racism group and Jewish students chronicled about 400 recent attacks against Jews and Jewish religious sites around the country.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Belgium, authorities said attackers threw gasoline bombs through the windows of a Brussels synagogue, causing a fire. According to the Jewish community the rear of the building, which is made of wood, was completely burned and smoke damage was caused throughout the entire building. However, no damage was done to the religious artifacts, including the Torah scrolls.
The Belgian government promised swift action to find the arsonists. "Under no circumstances can the situation in the Middle East be used as pretext to perpetrate such acts of violence and of intolerance against a community that has always been integrated in our country," Foreign Minister Louis Michel said in a statement.
Security was being stepped up at Jewish sites in Brussels and in Antwerp's diamond district, officials said.
The heightened tensions in France, in particular, has prompted Betar, the right wing youth movement, to call for volunteers. According to David Mansour, the Betar emissary from Israel to the French movement, most of the activity is defensive, with youths volunteering to guard synagogues, restaurants, and particularly schools near Muslim neighborhoods.
"We patrol from the time school is let out. There have been a lot of provocations by Muslim youths." He said that some fisticuffs have already broken out between Betar youths and Muslims. According to Mansour, about 24 Muslim youths in a Jewish neighborhood in Paris "began flying Palestinian flags and using sticks to beat Jews, until they got to our group. We fought back and then the police came. When the police began questioning us, the Arabs ran away." The youths are unarmed, since only the security forces in France are allowed to carry firearms.
Mostly, however, the Jewish establishments of France and Belgium rely on private security companies, and often use student volunteers to beef up the ranks of the guards during official events by the community.
Along with their demands for better security, some of the communities struck by the violence now are planning rallies against anti-Semitism and in support of Israel. The Belgian Jewish community was planning such a pro-Israel rally even before the arson at the synagogue, opposite the Israeli embassy. Now they are changing the agenda to be a rally against anti-Semitism. And in Paris, a mass rally is planned for next Sunday.
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