Man arrested in France synagogue arson, as ISIS claims German stabbing attack ‘to avenge Muslims in Palestine’
French judicial police officers walk past firefighters following a fire and explosion of cars at a synagogue in La Grande-Motte, south of France, Aug. 24, 2024. (Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — A man has been arrested in France after a synagogue there was set ablaze early Saturday morning, in at least the second French synagogue arson in recent months.
And police in Germany said they had taken into custody a 26-year-old Syrian man in connection a stabbing rampage at a music festival that left three dead.
The terror group ISIS claimed responsibility for the Solingen, Germany, rampage, saying on Telegram that the attack aimed “to avenge Muslims in Palestine.” German police said they could not immediately verify the claim but were investigating it.
The two attacks come amid a spike in antisemitic incidents in Europe and as concerns mount that Iran and its proxies might target Jews and Israelis in Europe in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.
The arson in France took place at Beth Yaacov synagogue in La Grande Motte, a seaside town located in the country’s south, at 8 a.m. Saturday when the rabbi and a handful of others were present. A man wearing a keffiyeh and what appeared to be a Palestinian flag tied around his waist was captured on video setting fire to cars outside the synagogue. Fire set outside the synagogue doors was extinguished, but one car exploded and injured a police officer, according to local news reports. The alleged attacker was taken into custody after a gunfight overnight.
Hundreds of police officers were mobilized in response to the attack, according to Gabriel Attal, France’s caretaker prime minister, who visited Beth Yaacov on Saturday. He tweeted that the response “probably avoided an absolute tragedy.”
Attal, whose father is Jewish, and other French officials have been strenuously seeking to tamp down antisemitism amid a spike seen during the Israel-Hamas war. In May, police killed a man who allegedly set fire to a synagogue in Rouen. In June, the country was rocked by an alleged antisemitic gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl.
“To attack a French person because he is Jewish is to attack all French people,” Attal tweeted after visiting La Grande Motte. French President Emmanuel Macron commented on the attack there, too, tweeting, “The fight against antisemitism is a constant battle.”
And Interior Minister Gerard Darmarin, who also visited the site, announced that security would be increased at synagogues around the country.
Attal is a lame duck after resigning as prime minister following election results last month that left the government in gridlock while strengthening the position of the far-left party France Unbowed.
Many right-wing and centrist politicians decried antisemitism in their response to the La Grande Motte arson. Jean-Luc Melenchon, France Unbowed’s leader who is staunchly pro-Palestinian and has said that “antisemitism is residual,” did not mention Jews specifically in his tweet denouncing the arson, saying, “Intolerable crime. Thoughts for the faithful and believers thus attacked.”
Yonathan Arfi, president of the French Jewish group CRIF, specifically denounced Melenchon’s party, known by its French acronym LFI.
“Anti-Semitism in keffiyeh. … Hatred of Israel is today, in fact, the main fuel for hatred of Jews,” he tweeted. “When LFI instrumentalizes the Palestinian cause in an outrageous and mendacious manner and hystericizes the public debate, it is the French Jews who are directly threatened. These incendiary provocations must stop!”
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