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Firefighters hose down more than 30 burning cars on a parking in Surennes (western Paris)
Photo: AFP
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French Jews are nervously watching as violence continues to spread through the country for the eleventh consecutive night. While targetting of Jewish sites has until now been limited, members of the community fear the worst is yet to come.
Arsonists who set 1300 cars across France on fire on Saturday night, have until now targeted two synagogues.
The urban violence in France has spread from a limited number of Parisian suburbs to cities across the country and to the centre of Paris.
The Jewish community has watched the riots increase in intensity, fearing new assaults against its members and synagogues. Community security services however say the number of anti-Semitic attacks in the suburbs is until now unchanged.
Arsonists threw at least two Molotov cocktails at synagogues in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine and Garges, leaving worshippers unhurt. Elsewhere, near the synagogue of Stains about 40 rioters confronted police forces who were braced for an attack.
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A textile warehouse burns near Aubervilliers, in the Paris region
Photo: AFP |
Jacki Brami, Garges’s rabbi, and his sons have been, "as usual", insulted, according to the anti-Semitism vigilance bureau
“It’s business as usual,” Samy Ghozlan, head of the anti-Semitism vigilance bureau told EJP. “These communities are used to these daily assaults. It’s worrisome, but we fear the worst is still to come.”
“Now that the media decided to reduce coverage of the riots, the thugs may intensify the violence against the Jews, to regain media attention," he added.
French authorities advised Jewish security officials not to publicise their fears, as such declarations could encourage rioters to attack Jews and Jewish community buildings.
The Jewish community has kept a low profile since the violence broke out. The only official reaction came from the chairman of the Paris consistoire, Moise Cohen, who wrote to the head of the French Muslim council Dalil Boubakeur.
Moise Cohen shared his indignation and sorrow following an incident that occurred on 30 October in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, where a tear gas grenade was thrown into a mosque.
“We consider every prayer room is sacred,” wrote Cohen, “and it must be kept away from any conflict, whatever its nature may be.”
“Rabble” Respond to Sarkozy
The riots were sparked two weeks ago by the accidental electrocution of two teenagers who had hidden in an electrical sub-station to escape a police identity check in the suburb at the epicentre of the troubles, Clichy-sous-Bois.
The opposition Socialist party and many in the suburbs have blamed the hardline policies of interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy for aggravating the violence.
Sarkozy, who has profiled himself as a serious candidate for the presidential elections in 2007, vowed a “war without mercy” on crime and rebellious youths in the suburbs just before the rampages erupted.
The minister, who is also head of the rightist UMP ruling party, has drawn criticism for his tough rhetoric, especially for referring to the rioters as “rabble.”
France has 751 neighbourhoods officially classed as severely disadvantaged, housing a total of five million people. Many of France’s estimated five million Muslims live in those suburbs.