France | Synagogue targeted by “anti-Semitic” attack

(La Grande-Motte) An investigation into attempted terrorist assassinations was opened in France on Saturday after the fire and explosion of a car in front of a synagogue in the south of the country, with the government denouncing an “anti-Semitic act” and increasing the presence of law enforcement in front of Jewish places of worship.

At least two cars, including one containing a gas cylinder that exploded, were set on fire early Saturday outside the synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande-Motte near Montpellier in southern France, injuring one person.

“Inside the synagogue there were five people, including the rabbi, who were not injured,” said the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), which has taken charge of the investigation, in a statement.

A municipal police officer who arrived at the scene following the fire was injured, the mayor of this town of 8,500 inhabitants, Stéphan Rossignol, told AFP, without being able to immediately provide details on his state of health.

Surveillance cameras in the city captured images of a suspect displaying a Palestinian flag, AFP learned from a source close to the investigation.

“Everything is being done to find the perpetrator of this terrorist act,” reacted French President Emmanuel Macron.

“An anti-Semitic act. Once again, our Jewish fellow citizens are being targeted,” wrote the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on X.

The government has regularly denounced a resurgence of anti-Semitic acts since the attack carried out by the Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023 and the start of the war in Gaza.

The explosion in front of the Beth Yaacov synagogue occurred during Shabbat, the weekly day of rest for people of Jewish faith, but there was no service in progress at the time of the incident, according to a source from the gendarmerie in charge of the immediate investigation.

Two doors of the religious building were damaged by the explosion, which did not cause any injuries other than the municipal police officer, according to the same source.

“I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens and the commune of my full support and say that at the request of the President of the Republic […]”All means are being mobilized to find the perpetrator,” declared the resigning Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.

The resigning minister also announced that he had asked all the country’s prefects to “immediately” reinforce the guards posted in front of places of worship and Jewish schools.

“Attempted murder”

The president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) Yonathan Arfi strongly denounced “an attempt to kill Jews”. “The use of a gas canister in a car at the time when we think that worshipers are arriving at a synagogue is not simply arson, not simply attacking a building, a place of worship, it is the desire to kill”, he denounced to AFP.

By Saturday around 11 a.m. (5 a.m. Eastern Time), the entire area around the synagogue was already cordoned off and secured by law enforcement, AFP journalists noted.

Anti-Semitic acts have almost tripled since the start of the year, with “887 incidents” recorded in the first half of the year, the Interior Ministry said on Friday, August 9, compared with 304 during the same period in 2023.

They had already increased sharply last year, particularly after October 7 — the date of the bloody Hamas attack on Israel, followed by the deadly response of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip — according to the Interior Ministry, which recorded 1,676 over the year, “four times more than in 2022.”

Anti-Semitism was one of the key themes of the campaign for the European and legislative elections in France, between controversies surrounding the radical left and attempts at normalisation by the far-right party, the National Rally.

Jewish places of worship were already subject to significant protection measures by law enforcement, given the international context, the Interior Minister’s entourage told AFP on Saturday.