Wiesenthal Centre to French Jewish Leaders: “While Government Takes Firm Protective Measures, Legal Authorities Call Attackers 'Unbalanced' as cover for Antisemitic Terrorists”

“Attendees at kosher supermarket commemoration were almost exclusively Jewish.”

“As continuing attacks take their toll... no wonder Jewish immigration is exceeding published figures... One can only imagine the fate of these communities today, but for the existence of the State of Israel.”

Paris, 12 January 2016

In a presentation to French Jewish leaders, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, suggested that “anniversary ceremonies across Paris for the victims of Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket atrocities have been undermined by continuing terrorism:
- a knife attack on a Paris police station by a self-proclaimed Jihadist, reportedly from a German camp for Syrian refugees. The assailant was shot dead by police fire
- a 15 year old Islamist machete attack on a Jewish school teacher, when leaving his synagogue in Marseilles.

Samuels protested that, “while the Government takes firm protective measures, legal authorities now use a new euphemism as cover for antisemitic terrorists, calling them 'unbalanced',” continuing, “the sheer repetition of incidents seems to have a numbing effect on public opinion, even more apparent in the wake of the indiscriminate Paris assaults that, last month, took more than 130 lives... The Jewish target becomes a lesser priority in the welter of generalized violence.”

He noted that “the situation could worsen in municipalities with greater Middle East-North African preponderance or where far left or far right figures are in control...” He also expressed outrage that, “despite media attention to our revelation of a scheduled neo-Nazi gathering in the city of Nantes, our alerts have been ignored by its Socialist Mayor.”

The Centre urged the Marseilles authorities “to thoroughly investigate the family, school, mosque and social media influences on the adolescent – 'unbalanced' – antisemitic terrorist and to take appropriate measures.”

“Attendees at the Kosher supermarket commemoration were almost exclusively Jewish... As the continued attacks take their toll, no wonder Jewish emigration from France is exponentially exceeding published figures... One can only imagine the fate of these communities today, but for the existence of the state of Israel,” concluded Samuels.