French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve slammed the “intolerable” acts of anti-Semitism which occurred over the weekend in Sarcelles, near Paris, after a rally against Israel’s Gaza operation descended into violence, pitting an angry pro-Palestinian crowd against synagogues and local Jewish businesses.
“When you head for the synagogue, when you burn a corner shop because it is Jewish-owned, you are committing an anti-Semitic act,” the minister told reporters outside the Sarcelles synagogue, a suburb north of Paris where potesters clash with riot police.
In the Paris suburb sometimes nicknamed “little Jerusalem” for its large community of Sephardic Jews, the rally on Sunday descended into chaos when dozens of youth — some masked — set fire to bins and lit firecrackers and smoke bombs.
Eighteen people were arrested after looters wrecked shops, including a kosher foodstore and a funeral home as protesters shouted: “Fuck Israel!”
“We have never seen such an outpouring of hatred and violence in Sarcelles,” said the the mayor, Francois Pupponi. “This morning people are stunned, and the Jewish community is afraid,” he added.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 72nd anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, a mass arrest of Jews in Paris by the French police, directed by Nazi authorities, during WWII, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Sunday drew a direct line between the hatred of Israel – as seen in violent protests across France and elsewhere in the world against Operation Protective Edge in Gaza – and the never-ending hatred of Jews.
He condemned the use of anti-Zionist rhetoric as a cover up of anti-Semitic opinions, and condemned “an anti-Semite who hides his hatred of the Jew behind an appearance of anti-Zionism and the hatred of Israel.”
He said that “the unacceptable excess yesterday in Paris justifies all the more the decision to forbid [such demonstrations],” adding that, “ France will not allow provocative minds to feed... conflict between communities.”