PARIS (EJP)---Swastikas and anti-Israeli graffiti were daubed on two synagogues in France, the latest anti-Semitic attacks in the country since the start of Israel's offensive in Gaza.
"Death to Israel", "Long live Palestine" and "Fuck France" were scrawled in black paint along the synagogue wall in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Wednesday, an photographer of Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
The synagogue’s rabbi, Elie Hayoun, has lodged a complaint at police on behalf of the Jewish Consistoire.
In the northern city of Lille, police said they had found a swastika painted near the door of the local synagogue, next to the letters ZOG -- an acronym for "Zionist Occupation Government".
The graffiti were discovered by a passer-by on Tuesday night, along with stones thrown into the synagogue compound, according Jean-Claude Komar, a leader of the local Jewish community, who has filed a legal complaint, said.
He blamed recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations for whipping up anti-Semitic sentiment.
In a solemn appeal to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, CRIF, the umbrella representative body of Jewish organizations in France, asked him to send a "strong message" in order to stop violences against the Jewish community of France. “We want to leave in peace,” a CRIF statement said.
“When one ignominiously declares that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, one appeals to hatred against the Jews,” the Jewish group said.
President Sarkozy has vowed "zero tolerance" for hate violence and warned "there is no place in the republic for anti-Semites or Islamophobes."
"Those who want to import to France these communal tensions will find the republican state in their path," he said during a visit to Orleans in central France.
Lille’s Mayor, Martine Aubry, issued a statement condemning the graffiti attack on the synagogue as "intolerable" and said the city would back the Jewish community lawsuit.
"Whatever each person's opinions, the Middle East conflict must not be exploited," said Aubry, who is also the leader of the opposition Socialist Party.
Three other synagogues have been attacked in the past two weeks, with vandals throwing petrol bombs at two worship places on Sunday while a car was rammed into the gates of a third last week.
Raphael Haddad, president of UEJF, the Union of Jewish Students of France, said that his group had registered 55 anti-Semitic attacks since the start of the Israeli military offensive on December 27.
Haddad said the violence was more intense than in 2001 when France was rocked by the spillover from the second Palestinian intifada.
He made the comments at a meeting in Paris of Jewish and Arab groups organised by Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara, who has responsibibility for France's high-immigrant suburbs.
Hafid Bouchefa from a community group in a Paris suburb said tensions were running high in ethnically-mixed neighborhoods.
"There are young people there who are not thinking things through. These are the same ones who torched cars during the 2005 riots," he said.
Participants at the meeting also said they were worried by mass anti-Semitic SMS messages and emails making the rounds and agreed to draft a common appeal urging Jews and Arabs to "live together" in peace.
The National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA) in France reported Wednesday that a rabbi in Vincennes, near Paris, who received death threats in an anonymous letter, has asked for increased security measures for his community centre. The letter, which makes reference to the Koran, says: “We Muslims in France are all Palestinians.”
Sammy Ghozlan, head of the monitoring group, stressed that all the synagogues targeted belong to the Orthodox Jewish community.
There have been several pro-Palestinian demonstrations in cities across France in the last two weeks.
French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has ordered security measures to be strengthened at Jewish sites across the country.
Meanwhile, three north African students were assaulted last week outside their high school in a wealthy Paris neighbourhood, education officials and a victims' group said Tuesday.
The two teenagers suffered blows to the face when they clashed with a group of seven pro-Israeli activists who were distributing leaflets outside the school in the 16th arrondissement, they said.
CRIF condemned the aggression. “We have always condemned violence and racism from wherever it comes,” it said.
Around 600,000 Jews live in the country, the largest Jewish community in Europe.