Anti-Semitic Attacks in France in 2007

This page is part of a section on "2007 List of Anti-Semitic Attacks" maintained by PaulaSays. This is only a partial list. If you know of an attack not reported on these pages, please send a note to: .

• Raymond. A, a 17-year-old Jewish man, who wears a skullcap, was waiting on Shabbat for someone to open the door of the building where he lives, on the rue Albert Camus, when around twenty young people described as being of North African and Black origin attacked him violently at the face and the body after pronouncing his name. One of the aggressors, Raymond reported did not cease swearing on the Koran while beating his victim.
• French police are investigating the desecration of 53 gravestones Sunday at a cemetery in the northern city of Lille the day before the Passover holiday. Several of the markers were knocked down or broken. President Jacques Chirac condemned "this unspeakable and intolerable act" and expressed his sympathy to the families affected.
• A 45-year-old Jewish man was stabbed in front of a French Kosher restaurant Tuesday in another anti-Semitic incident which has plagued the French Jewish community. Last week, a young Jewish woman was attacked in Marseilles.  The victim was identified as "Eric" and was hospitalized for injured in his left shoulder. The attack occurred in the city of Villeurbanne in southern France.
• Rabbi Elie Dahan (rabbi of a Jewish community in north of France) was assaulted this morning by a 20- year-old at the Paris train station, he was transferred bleeding and in shock, to the nearest hospital. Witnesses tried but failed to catch the felon. Dahan declared: “I arrived from Lille and was walking in the Paris station when the man, who was accompanied by a woman, turned
  at me and shouted: dirty Jew, you are looking at me. I will smash your face dirty Jew.” The police say the motivations might not be religious ones.
• Marseille - A 22-year-old Jewish woman was attacked  in April by two men of Middle Eastern appearance in the parking lot of a train station in Marseilles's La Rose neighborhood, home to both Arab immigrants and French Jews. As described to the Police, the incident began as a robbery before the assailants noticed their victim’s necklace, which bore a Jewish “chai” pendant. The attackers then began hitting her in the head, pulled out a knife, cut a lock of her hair, and slashed open her shirt. The men drew a swastika on her chest and fled the scene. The investigating prosecutor has confirmed that the attack was anti-Semitic in nature.
• Paris - A 23-year-old man wearing traditional Jewish Orthodox clothing was violently attacked in July while on his way to a synagogue with his brother-in-law and three year old son. The attacker, apparently irritated to see the child walking so slowly, began to hoot and shine his car’s lights as the three entered a pedestrian crossing. The victim gestured for the man to be quiet, signaling that pedestrians have the right of way. After shouting anti-Semitic insults, the attacker got out of his car and beat his victim with his hands and an iron bar. The Jewish man suffered a broken arm and injuries to his head. Police arrested the perpetrator who will be charged with “violence against a person because of his religion.”
• A 23-year-old Jewish woman was attacked in September afternoon in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris, by two youths who beat her and shouted anti-Semitic words, the French National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, said. "I thought I was going to die because nobody came to help me," the woman, only identified as Rebecca, said. While phoning in front of her house, she was attacked by two youths of "African origin" whose head was covered by a hooded cape and their face hidden by a scarf. They shouted "You dirty Jew" at the woman before stealing her mobile phone and beating her violently at the head and the body. She suffered several bruises in the face and the rest of the body. According to Rebecca, the two aggressors recognized her Jewish origin when they saw a Star of David pendant on her neck. She said she was "terrorized" and had in mind what happened to Ilan Halimi, the 23-year-old Jewish Parisian shockingly tortured and assassinated by a gang in 2006. The woman's father ran after the aggressors but they escaped. One of them was later arrested by police and put in custody.