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People gather, on June 22, 2008, in front of the Cochin's hospital in Paris, where a Jewish teenager is being treated after he was severely beaten by a gang of youths with metal bars Saturday evening. Paris Cochin hospital officials said the 17-year-old was in critical condition in intensive care.
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PARIS (EJP)---French Jewish organisations on Sunday condemned an anti-Semitic attack in Paris in which a Jewish teenager was severely beaten by a gang of five black African youths with metal bars.
Sammy Ghozlan, head of the Bureau for Viligance on Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), which monitors anti-Semitic acts in te country, told EJP that a group of six or seven youths attacked the teenager with metal bars and "smashed his skull."
He said the young man, who didn’t carry ID papers because of the Shabbat, was a member of the local Lubavitch community. He was only identified by his first name Rudi.
The 17-year-old was wearing a kippah when he was attacked in square Petit in Paris' multi-ethnic 19th district Saturday evening at around 8:30 pm.
According to Ghozlan, the teenager was in a very grave coma when he was brought to hospital Cochin after being found lying on the ground.
Ghozlan stressed that earlier this month Jews from the same 19th district neighborhood had already expressed their concern and complained about anti-Jewish dealings of a gang of coloured youths.
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Anti-Semitism is a sensitive issue in France, where the 600,000-strong Jewish community is western Europe's largest, and which is also home to a five-million strong Muslim population.
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There is no doubt that this is an anti-Semitic act," Ariel Goldmann, vice president of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organisations, said.
He called on the French authorities “to do everything possible to arrest those responsible.”
Police said they had detained five youths in connection with the beating.
The attack occurred on the eve of President Nicolas Sarkozy's trip to
Israel.
French Minister reaction
French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said she was "deeply affected" by the attack and ordered investigators to spare no effort to find the perpetrators and shed light on the circumstances surrounding the violence.
She "expressed solidarity and support for the victim, his family and to the entire Jewish community, and reaffirmed her determination to fight tirelessly against all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, which flouts the values of the republic," said an Interior Ministry statement.
Social and Work Minister Xavier Bertrand expressed hsi solidarity with the victim's parents. "We have to fight all forms of anti-Semitism and racism," he said on France 2 television.
