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Anti-Semitic attack goes unheeded

Updated: 13/Jan/2006 13:59

The Synagogue of Sarcelles

Photo: Alain Azria

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Four adolescents beat up two 11-year-old Jewish kids in a Paris suburb without sparking any reaction from passers-by. Police arrested them shortly after the attack.

Joel A. and Levy A., two orthodox Jewish boys, were waiting for their bus in the Paris suburb of Creteil on Monday evening when they were attacked by four 16- and 17-year-old adolescents, according to Samy Gozlan from the Vigilance Bureau against anti-Semitism.

Shaking with fear

One of the thugs beat Joel to the ground and the other three assaulted Levy. The aggressors shouted anti-Semitic insults such as “dirty Jew” and made the children’s kippas fall on the ground.

The children, who were on their way home, in the Paris suburb of Bonneuil, called for help but no passer-by intervened. A moment later the thugs left the children trembling with fear.

Joel and Levy then saw a young Jewish man get off a bus nearby.

They asked him if he could stay with them a little while to protect them. Matthias, 22, accepted and a shortly after the thugs came back, attacking Matthias and beating him in the face and the chest to the point that he had breathing difficulties.

Passers-by called police and emergency services. The three victims were hospitalised and later pressed charges against their aggressors who were arrested by the police.

Synagogue vandalised

The Vigilance bureau against anti-Semitism condemned the attack but praised the quick and efficient police work. The four thugs spent 48 hours in police office cells.

The Vigilance bureau asked for severe measures against them.

Last Friday, before dawn, a 21-year-old man vandalised a synagogue in the northern suburb of Sarcelles. In that incident as well, police caught the vandal while he was still in the synagogue.

The man, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, graffitied anti-Semitic inscriptions such as “Jews out” and “death to Ariel Sharon” on a synagogue wall.

Sarcelles’ rabbi, Laurent Berros, said this was the first such act perpetrated against the synagogue.

In the past worshippers have been attacked while leaving the synagogue, which is in the centre of the Jewish quarter of Sarcelles.