A kosher restaurant in Paris was attacked at night by vandals who threw acid over the tables in the latest of three attacks on the venue.
On Friday morning employees at Kokoriko restaurant in the city centre, arrived to find the corrosive substance had been poured onto the tables, sprayed on the walls, and scattered across the floor, the Paris public prosecutor’s office told the Jerusalem Post.
The fire brigade was contacted, and all the crockery, cutlery, and glasses were declared unusable, while the acid had corroded many of the table surfaces, leaving behind a white residue.
The fire brigade’s nuclear, radiological, biological, and chemical unit was deployed, with technicians from the Central Laboratory of the Police Prefecture also arriving at the scene to analyse the acid.
Anti-racism group the Combat Antisemitism Movement, posted on X after the incident, claiming: “Jewish businesses in France are being targeted again, like in the 1940s.”
The prosecutor’s office has now opened an investigation into “damage to another person’s property caused by a means dangerous to people”, committed on grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.
In France, this specific offence carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Vandals have twice previously thrown acid over the restaurant's facade, the most recent attack being in October last year. The investigation into that incident was dropped, however, and the culprits were not apprehended.
Kokoriko is currently closed while the investigation takes its course.
Last year, according to the Ministry of the Interior, France saw 1,320 antisemitic incidents, slightly less than 2024’s figure of 1,570 incidents, which itself marked a six percent fall from the 1,676 recorded in 2023.
Figures remain far higher, though, than pre-October 7 levels.
2022 saw 436 incidents, and each year between 2012 and 2022, the figure was between 311 and 851.
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