Paris Holocaust memorial, synagogues hit with paint

PARIS: France’s Holocaust memorial as well as three synagogues and a restaurant in Paris were vandalised with green paint overnight Saturday, according to police sources.

An investigation has been opened into “damage committed on religious grounds”, said Paris’s public prosecutor’s office. No arrests have been made.

“I am deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X.

Retailleau last week called for “visible and dissuasive” security measures at Jewish-linked sites amid concerns over possible anti-Semitic acts. In a separate message seen by AFP, the interior minister on Friday had ordered heightened surveillance ahead of the coming Jewish Shavuot holiday.

“Anti-Semitic acts account for more than 60 percent of anti-religious acts, and the Jewish community is particularly vulnerable,” Retailleau said in the message seen by AFP.

The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023.

“There is deep sadness and outrage... at the sight of these images showing vandalised Jewish sites,” said Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF).

Paris authorities plan to lodge a complaint over the paint incident, said the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo.

“I condemn these acts of intimidation in the strongest possible terms. Anti-Semitism has no place in our city or in our Republic,” she said. Last year, France registered 1,570 anti-Semitic acts, according to interior ministry figures.