PARIS (EJP)---Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, confirmed to EJP hat one of the suspected assailant in a recent attack on three Jewish teens in Paris’s 19th district is Jewish.
According to police sources, six youths aged from 16 to 23 have been detained for questioning about their involvement in the beating on September 6 of three Jewish teenagers wearing kipas. One of the six was freed but the five others were still being detained Tuesday morning at the police station. Three of them are black.
Prasquier said the fact that one of the suspects is Jewish "complicated" the affair but he is still convinced that the aggression had an anti-Semitic character.
According to the French press agency AFP, police investigators are no more mentioning the anti-Semitic character of the attack, privileging rather “classical tensions” in the 19th district of Paris marked by growing violences between rival gangs.
Prasquier told EJP: “This has nothing to do with gangs. “If you throw a stone at a youth wearing a kipa, it's anti-Semitic,” he added, noting that the three youths attacked are known as “serious students.”
The attack occurred on the same street where 17-year-old Rudy Haddad was severely beaten in June.
The three were walking in the street on Saturday afternoon when another group of youths threw a walnut at them. One of the Jewish youths approached the other group to ask for an explanation and was encircled and beaten. The other two Jewish youths went to help their friend and were also beaten.
One of the youths suffered a broken nose and another a fractured cheekbone, while all three had bruises. After leaving hospital they filed a complaint with police.
French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and Paris Mayor Betrand Delanoe have denounced the aggression as anti-Semitic.
The multi-ethnic 19th district of Paris is home of a large Jewish community which expressed repeatedly its deep concern about the unsafe climate in the neighborhood and called for measures to avoid a further deterioration.
On Monday night, a young Black and a person of North-African origin have been stabbed in the area. .
Prasquier met local police authorities to discuss means to increase security. “But the solution is not only with police measures but as this is a daily problem, I have proposed that local policemen be trained to learn more about Judaism and its practices.”
Paris’s Mayor Betrand Delanoë, who denounced the “grave situation,” has asked the Interior Minister to significantly reinforce the police forces in the 19th district.
France is home of Western Europe’s largest Jewish community, about 600,000 people.
