Toulouse murders

Exodus to the UK as French Jews escape antisemitism

Anna Sheinman — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:27:40 +0000

The number of French Jews crossing the Channel to find safe haven in the UK has surged as figures published this week revealed a 58 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents in France in 2012.

Last week, the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, warned that "the position of Jews in Europe today is very difficult. There are threats at this moment to brit mila and shechita, and Jews in Europe have begun to ask, is there a place for us here?"

That warning follows a sharp rise in the number of antisemitic incidents in France after the murder of four Jews in Toulouse in March 2012. In the subsequent 10 days, 90 separate incidents were reported, over five times the average rate.

St John's Wood Synagogue in London has set up a separate French minyan, attended regularly by 120 people on Shabbat. The congregation's rabbi, Mordechai Fhima, originally from Paris, said: "Every Shabbat there are new faces. My congregants tell me that here they can practise as a Jew more openly."

The statistics from the French equivalent of the Community Security Trust, the SPCJ, show an increase in antisemitic incidents from 389 in 2011 to 614 in 2012. But although the numbers are similar to those in the UK, incidents in France are far more likely to involve violence.

In 2012 there were 102 violent attacks in France and 69 in the UK. One in four attacks in France involved a weapon.

It was originally stated that in over three-quarters of the antisemitic incidents the perpetrators were reported as being of North African origin, however the SPCJ has now removed this statement from their report.

Richard Prasquier, president of Crif, the French Jewish communal organisation, said the figures "degrade the image of France" and should be "at the heart of the national political debate".

Mr Pras-quier warned last month at Crif's annual conference that "resurgent antisemitism could endanger the presence of Jews in France".

Sandra Dahan Elbase, 29, left Paris for the UK in 2011 and now lives in Cambridge with her French husband. She said: "In Paris I would never wear a Magen David walking around, I was even afraid to read a book in Hebrew on the Metro. There was a climate of fear.

"My family are also thinking about leaving because of the antisemitism," she said.

One man, who did not wish to be named, said he had renounced his French citizenship and become a British citizen because of antisemitism. He said: "Because the French elect their leader directly, this encourages populist statements. Politicians pour hot oil on the flames of public racism."

Rabbi Fhima explained that the numbers of those moving mean there is now a strong French Jewish communal life in the UK, with communities concentrated around the French school in South Kensington and in St John's Wood.

"Once a month we bring a French-speaking rabbi over to give a talk and I do a gemarah lesson every Monday night in French."

He said: "I'm not afraid to walk down the street in Paris, but I definitely feel more secure here."

According to a survey conducted last March by The Israel Project, more than a quarter of the half-million strong French Jewish community had grown so disgusted with antisemitism that they were considering emigrating.

Washington pollster Stan Greenberg, who oversaw the surveys and focus groups, said that of the 26 per cent who were considering emigrating, 13 per cent were "seriously" considering leaving.

The survey came on the heels of the Toulouse attack. Since the murders, antisemitic incidents have escalated in France. On one occasion, the chief rabbi of Lyons received a letter showing harrowing images of Jewish children being marched to a Second World War death camp, together with a death threat against him.

Two arrested in connection with Toulouse shootings

Sandy Rashty — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:58:38 +0000

Two people have been arrested in connection with killing of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse earlier this year.

A Gypsy and his former partner have been questioned by police on suspicion of acting as accomplices to self-proclaimed “Islamic warrior” Mohammed Merah.

Mr Merah, who had French citizenship, said he was motivated by the death of Palestinians and military action by France abroad.

Mr Merah, 24, was shot on March 22 by police after a 32-hour siege. Two police officers were wounded during the stand-off. He is held responsible for the deaths of seven people from March 11-19.

President Francois Hollande pledged to tighten anti-terror laws following the attacks.

Netanyahu to meet Hollande, visit Toulouse

Sandy Rashty — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:57:55 +0000

The Israeli prime minister arrived in Paris this morning for a two-day diplomatic trip to France.

Benajmin Netanyahu will meet the French President Francois Hollande, Prime Minister Jean Marc Ayrault and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

According to media reports, the meeting with Mr Hollande will focus on Iran’s nuclear programme, since the French leader supports imposing additional sanctions on Iran.

Mr Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, will also attend a memorial service in Toulouse, to commemorate the four Jewish victims of an antisemitic terrorist attack in March.

Family and friends of the victims will also attend the service at the Ohr Torah School where the attack took place.

Death camp letter sent to French rabbi

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:42:58 +0100

French anti-terror police are on high alert after a chief rabbi was sent harrowing images of Jewish children being marched to a Second World War death camp.

A menacing letter and the grim pictures were posted to Chief Rabbi Richard Wertenschlag at his synagogue in Lyon.

The letter read: “More and more frequently we are having ideas imposed on us that have as their goal to apologise for the Jew, the so-called Shoah, the evil Palestinians. From now on we will punish a Jew each time that you go on television to complain.”

On the photographs, the letter said: “These prove that the Jews were well treated in Germany, fed and lodged with summer camp for the children.”

Rabbi Wertenschlag said it was not unusual to receive antisemitic mail, but he alerted police to this letter posted earlier this month because of its “threatening and offensive content”.

A Lyon police spokesman said: “We could brush it off as the work of one rogue individual but we have to envisage the worst scenario.”

Shock over Toulouse gunman Merah recording

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:42:40 +0100

Relatives of the Toulouse terror victims have spoken of their shock at the broadcast of killer Mohamed Merah's negotiations with police on French national television.

Merah was heard on Sept a Huit, a programme broadcast on TV channel TF1 on Sunday night, telling negotiators he wanted to carry out more attacks, similar to the killings at the Jewish school in which he shot dead four people, including a rabbi and his two daughters.

He was heard claiming: "I would leave everything to chance and proceed without any preparation."

A lawyer acting for relatives of those killed, Samia Maktouf, said: "The victims are outraged to learn the contents of these negotiations on television," adding they would go to court in order to get a ban on any further broadcast of the tapes.

Merah also said he did not plan to be caught, and "was ready for all of the tactics negotiators would try", adding "I know that there's a chance you could kill me, that's a risk I'm taking. So there we are, know that you are up against a man who is not afraid of death."

The French interior minister, Maunel Valls, strongly condemned the decision of TF1 to broadcast the tapes while court proceedings were ongoing.

The producer of Sept a Huit, Emmanuel Chain, defended his decision to broadcast the recording, arguing it had a "high news value" and that the network had "acted responsibly".

Toulouse Jewish school pupil attacked in France

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:34:19 +0100

An identifiably Jewish teenager who attends the Toulouse school attacked by an Islamist gunman earlier this year has been targeted by thugs on a train.

The 17-year-old boy was allegedly insulted and harassed by a group of men on a train to Lyon last week. He was wearing a kippah at the time.

According to police, the men began beating the boy up and only stopped when another passenger and the train's conductor became involved in the situation.

The victim, who was on the way to visit his family, is a pupil at the Ozer Hatorah school, the site of Mohammed Merah's shooting rampage in march. Merah killed a rabbi and three children at the school during his killing spree around Toulouse.

The teenager was hospitalised in the wake of the attack and has now brought charges against the bullies. The French Jewish umbrella organisation, Crif, said that two alleged attackers had been arrested.

The incident was described as an act of "antisemitic aggression" by Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who urged the French people to "fight against all the resurgences of this strong evil that is the antisemitism in our country". He said antisemitism was "an offence against the values and history of our republic".

Earlier this month a recording of Merah before he died in a shoot-out with police was leaked to a news site. On the tape, the gunman can be heard saying: "You have a man who is not afraid of death. For me, death, I love it like you love life."

'Al Qaeda' militant takes hostages in Toulouse

Josh Jackman — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:30:33 +0100

A gunman claiming to be an al-Qaeda militant has taken four people hostage in a bank in the southwestern French city of Toulouse.

The incident, which follows the shootings of three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi in March by an al-Qaeda affiliate named Mohamed Merah, began at 9am with an attempt to hold up a CIC bank branch in central Toulouse.

Officials stated that when the gunman’s demand for money was rejected, a shot was fired and the hostages were taken, among them the bank branch director. One hostage has now been released from the building.

The purported militant, who is reported to be around 30 years old and known to authorities, has demanded that the elite Raid police unit, which was responsible for killing Merah, come and negotiate with him. No Raid officers have so far been deployed.

A police union source was quoted in the regional newspaper Ouest-France saying that it was impossible to know whether the gunman’s claim about his links with al-Qaeda were “serious or a fantasy”.

Public prosecutor Michel Valet said that “we’re taking measures so we can start a dialogue”, with police officers from the elite GIPN (Groupe d’intervention de la police nationale) brigade currently on the scene.

The area surrounding the bank, which lies just 100 m from where Merah used to live, has been cordoned off, with two nearby schools also having been closed.

Family of Toulouse gunman Merah sue over his death

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:07:47 +0100

The family of the man who murdered four people outside a Jewish school in Toulouse in March has begun legal action, alleging that the gunman was murdered.

Mohammed Merah, who killed seven people during his shooting spree in France, died after a 32-hour stand-off with police in an apartment in Toulouse. Two officers were wounded during the exchange of fire.

But despite the fact that he admitted to the murders before his death, his family is claiming that his demise was "murder with aggravated circumstances".

Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, one of the lawyers representing the Merah family, suggested on Monday that they believed the police unit who handled the raid should have done more to capture the gunman alive.

"You have 300 or 400 over-armed people, and one guy alone in his apartment, closed in," said Ms Coutant-Peyre, who previously represented the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.

The family's lawyers also said that they had videos in which Merah protested his innocence, and other "serious evidence" to support the case.

'Kill the Jews' abuse on Toulouse campus

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:20:43 +0100

The president of the French Jewish student umbrella body, the UEJF, has called on the University of Toulouse to combat antisemitism after a talk by Israeli students last week was disrupted by protesters shouting abuse, making threats and singing antisemitic chants.

The incident occurred just over a month after three Jewish children and a rabbi were shot by an Islamist gunman in Toulouse.

The delegation of Israeli students from the non-political organisation What Is RAEL were midway through a tour of French universities and had held successful events in Lille and Lyon before visiting Le Mirail campus, in the area where the Toulouse gunman Mohammed Merah grew up.

They were at a stall on the campus and were handing out leaflets and chatting to students when a group of protesters arrived and began shouting at them through a megaphone.

"They began shouting anti-Israel slogans and saying that Israel was a criminal state," said Sacha Reingewitz, vice-president of the UEJF. "They said Jews should be exterminated and that Israel commits genocide." The protesters demanded that the group remove the Israeli flag from their stall and, when the group refused, they took it down by force.

"Security had to intervene - it was very upsetting," said Mr Reingewitz. "The protesters were saying 'get out of here' and they sang an antisemitic slogan in Arabic: Khaybar Khaybar is Yahud, Jaysh Muhammad sawfa ya'ud ['Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return']."

After security removed the protesters the event continued, but Mr Reingewirtz said the Israeli visitors were "very shaken".

Jewish and Israeli students attacked at Toulouse university event

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:34:47 +0100

The president of the French Jewish student organisation has called on the University of Toulouse to combat antisemitism after a talk by Israeli students last week was disrupted by protesters shouting abuse, making threats and singing antisemitic chants.

The incident, which happened on April 25, occurred just over a month after three Jewish students and a rabbi were shot by an Islamist gunman in Toulouse.

The delegation of Israeli students from thenon-political organisation What Is RAEL were midway through a tour of French universities and had held successful events in Lille and Lyon before visiting Le Mirail campus, in the area where the Toulouse gunman Mohammed Merah grew up.

They were at a stall on the campus and were handing out leaflets and chatting to students when a group of protesters arrived and began shouting at them through a megaphone.

"They began shouting anti-Israel slogans and saying that Israel was a criminal state," said Sacha Reingewitz, vice president of the UEJF. "They said Jews should be exterminated and that Israel commits genocide."

The protesters demanded that the Israeli group remove the Israeli flag from their stall and when the group refused, they took it down by force.

"Security had to intervene – it was very upsetting," said Mr Reingewirtz. "The protesters were saying 'get out of here' and they sang an antisemitic slogan in Arabic: Khaybar Khaybar is Yahud, Jaysh Muhammad sawfa ya'ud" (Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return)."

After security removed the protesters the event continued, but Mr Reingewirtz said the Israeli visitors were "very shaken".

"They did not expect this at all," he said. "They were very distressed. They were obviously willing to have a discussion, even one that was tense, but they were not expecting anything of this sort."

The students, who have also visited British campuses, have now returned to Israel.

The incident took place days after the first round of voting in the French presidential race.

A spokeswoman for the Union of Jewish Students in the UK expressed support for efforts to tackle such vitirolic incidents of antisemitism in universities.

"No university authority should stay silent and lay dormant when events such as this occur," she said. "This week we have been touring campuses promoting Tel Aviv as a wonderful holiday destinaton and earlier this year did a similiar tour with Israeli students and did not and have not come up against anything of this nature.

"We stand firm, as proven by last week's tackling of the antisemitic incident at the NUS Conference, that antisemitism will not be tolerated in British universities and UJS would always be willling to lend a hand of support to our French or any other counterparts in tackling this issue wherever it unfortunatley occurs.

"Antisemitism and hatred is universally unacceptable and there should be a zero tolerance policy for it in a university or any other environment."