Man sentenced to two years in prison for anti-Semitic attack on Montpellier tram

The Montpellier Criminal Court sentenced a 48-year-old man to two years in prison, one of which was suspended, for anti-Semitic assault, reports France Bleu Hérault. On August 6, on the Montpellier tram, he repeatedly asked a Parisian tourist sitting opposite him if he was Jewish, before hitting him. A passenger filmed the scene and posted her video on social media. The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) in Languedoc-Roussillon launched an appeal for witnesses before the suspect was arrested at his home, recognized thanks to the footage.

During his trial, the Montpellier resident admitted to the attack but not its anti-Semitic nature. “I was not in my normal state, I was drunk, I said that in relation to the current context in Gaza”he tried to justify himself. The court followed the prosecutor’s submissions, who considered that “The Jews of France do not have to be linked to events that take place 4,000 kilometers from here, we must not confuse everything.”

For Perla Danan, president of Crif Languedoc-Roussillon, “It is essential to show to what extent anti-Semitism has increased in France […] And this case, because the victim is not Jewish, shows that anti-Semitism concerns all French people. It is a poison for our democracy.“. On Friday, August 9, the resigning Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced that “Anti-Semitic acts in France have tripled since last autumn and 887 incidents have been recorded in this first half of the year alone.”