SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401 E-mail: csweurope@gmail FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wiesenthal Centre and French Partner BNVCA Condemn Shootings at Paris Jewish Establishments as “New Threshold in European Antisemitic Terrorism” Paris, 29 December 2014 The French BNVCA (National Counter – Antisemitism Vigilance Bureau) was established in partnership with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in 2001 as “SOS Antisemitism.” Its President, former policemanSammy Ghozlan, first on the on the scene last week following three shootings at Jewish establishments in Paris, stated, “after attacks on Jewish schools and synagogues have now turned them into fortresses, it is the turn of Jewish businesses to be targeted.” This time, three officials, in an otherwise empty synagogue, heard a shot through a nearby windowpane. This was followed by shots,reportedly from the same airgun,at a Jewish print-shop and then a kosher restaurant, all in the Paris 19th district of Belleville. “The intifada in France began this summer with threats and assaults on synagogues and Jewish individuals. This escalated recently to armed robbery together with rape. The use of fire-arms crosses a new threshold,” stated Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels. “In the summer, attackers on Jewish property would vandalize the Mezuza prayer scroll affixed to the doorposts. A bona fide source then claimed that rioters were urged to leave them in place to identify future targets. Jews are increasingly moving the Mezuza to the interior of their home or business, like Marrano crypt-Jews in medieval Spain,” added Samuels. Belleville is a colourful mix of Jews, Indo-Chinese and, more recently, Muslims. Following a Jihadist motorbiker who, last year, drove into the local underground station to shoot people waiting on the platform, the Indo-Chinese (predominantly Vietnamese) community called an emergency meeting. The Wiesenthal Centre was consulted after 4,000 young Chinese speaking Vietnamese, in one year left France on contracts in China, Taiwan and Singapore. “What begins with the Jews never ends with them,” would have said the late Simon Wiesenthal.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:58:33 +0000
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