Toulouse Jewish School and Gay Center Hit by Swastika Vandals
Swastikas and other hate graffiti were painted on buildings throughout the French city of Toulouse.
Sunday night’s vandalism, which also included far-right symbols, struck an LBGT center, a university and cemetery, and the offices of left-wing candidates in elections next month, according to Radio France International. Police have not identified any suspects.
The graffiti attacked Jewish groups and compared Jews to homosexuals, RFI reported.
“Those hateful messages are a real danger for our republic,” Toulouse Mayor Pierre Cohen of the Socialist Party said in a statement. “It is our responsibility not to let this noxious atmosphere reminiscent of the inglorious past become established.”
The Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse was the site two years ago where a radical Islamist killed four people, including three children.
Also Sunday, some 20 supporters of the French comedian Dieudonne M’laba M’laba held a “quenelle party” on the southwest French city’s main square, police told RFI. The quenelle, a gesture reminiscent of a Nazi salute that was created by Dieudonne, has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic.
Last month, French police arrested a man who posted a photo on social networks that showed a young man wearing sunglasses performing the quenelle while standing in front of the entrance to the Ozar Hatorah School wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the portrait of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30