A 28-year-old Gazan assaulted a rabbi at a café in a suburb of Paris, throwing a chair at him and causing a head injury.
By Rachel Avraham
A Palestinian assailant was taken into custody after assaulting a rabbi at a café in a suburb of Paris, France 24 reported. According to the report, the suspect attacked Rabbi Elie Lemmel in the western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he struck the rabbi in the head with a chair. France 24 reported that Rabbi Lemmel, who wore a traditional kippah cap and a long beard, was taken to hospital with a head injury.
“I found myself on the ground, I immediately felt blood flowing,” Rabbi Lemmel recalled. “Unfortunately, given my beard and my kippah, I suspected that was probably why, and it’s such a shame.”
According to the report, the attacker is a Palestinian man residing illegally in Germany, who benefits from a status that offers a form of protection for people who cannot be deported to a conflict zone. I24 reported that the 28-year-old assailant was born in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
After the assault, Rabbi Lemmel told I24 News: “I am very afraid that we are living in a world where words are generating more and more evil.” While welcoming the fact that attack was not fatal, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou deplored “the radicalization of public debate.” CRIF, the umbrella organization of France’s Jewish groups, condemned “in the strongest possible terms the antisemitic attack on the rabbi.”
“In a general context where hatred of Israel fuels the stigmatization of Jews on a daily basis, this attack is yet another illustration of the toxic climate targeting French Jews,” CRIF said on X. Yonathan Arfi, the CRIF president, said: “Nothing, not even solidarity with the Palestinians, can ever justify attacking a rabbi.”
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the antisemitic attack that targeted a rabbi in Neuilly,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X. “Attacking a person because of their faith is a shame. The increase in anti-religious acts requires the mobilization of everyone.” Former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote, “This act sickens us. Antisemitism, like all forms of hatred, is a deadly poison for our society.”
Friday’s incident follows another in the town of Deauville in Normandy last week, when Rabbi Lemmel told Reuters he was punched in the stomach by an unknown assailant. According to the report, Rabbi Lemmel said he was used to “not-so-friendly looks, some unpleasant words, people passing by, spitting on the ground,” but had never been physically assaulted before the two attacks.
Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Advisor on European Affairs Shannon Seban commented, “What can I say? It’s like a bad movie… but it’s true. An unbearable reality, where not a day goes by without news of a new antisemitic attack. An antisemitism that is becoming commonplace, almost ‘trendy’ in certain circles, fueled and trivialized by a segment of the political class. It is high time that the fight against antisemitism be elevated to a major national cause. Before it’s too late.”
Last Saturday, five sites in the French capital — including a national Holocaust memorial, three synagogues, and an Israeli restaurant — were defaced with green paint. “Every antisemitic attack is an attack on the Republic itself,” Seban noted on X shortly after the vandalism was reported.
Photo from RTL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX6m6V02HbY
