“It’s a voluntary action. This man wanted to reach this flag and no other, with a desire to destroy it,” said Jean-René Etchegaray, the mayor of the city.
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The town hall of Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) filed a complaint after the defacement of the Israeli flag on the Saint-Esprit bridge, reports France Bleu Pays Basque on Monday May 27. The standard is the only one that appears torn among all the flags flying on the Saint-Esprit bridge in Bayonne. An investigation has been opened to try to identify the perpetrators of this act.
The events took place on Sunday in the middle of the afternoon, but it was not until the next day that Bayonne town hall was alerted. Contacted by France Bleu Pays Basque, Monday evening, the mayor of Bayonne explains that on the films from the video surveillance cameras, we can clearly see a man climbing onto the mast and trying to slash the flag. “It is a voluntary action. This man wanted to reach this flag and no other, with a desire to destroy it”, says Jean-René Etchegaray. Video surveillance images are being used to identify the individual.
Jean-René Etchegaray shares “the excitement of the city whose links with the Jewish community have been close for several centuries”. To his knowledge, this is the first time that the Israeli flag has been attacked in this way. “We cannot accept it”, adds the mayor of Bayonne. No flag hoisted on the bridge has ever been damaged in any way.
