On the third anniversary of the Hyper Cacher attack, vandals set fire to a Jewish market in Paris, the latest anti-Semitic incident in the country.
By: World Israel News Staff and AP
A kosher grocery market in Paris was vandalized and torched on Tuesday, in an apparent anti-Semitic attack.
No one was hurt in the incident, but the fire damaged much of the Promo & Stock store.
Antoine Besme, of the regional prosecutor’s office, said authorities believe the fire Tuesday in the suburb of Creteil was of a criminal nature, because the store’s protective shutters had been forced open.
Last Wednesday, two Jewish stores in the area, including the one set on fire on Tuesday, were spray-painted with five swastikas. The second store was also slightly damaged in the fire.
The fire raised concerns because of the anti-Semitic graffiti, and because the fire broke out three years after a deadly Islamic terror attack at the Hyper Cacher market in Paris which left four Jews dead.
Creteil is home to some 23,000 Jews among its 90,000 residents.
President of the Creteil Jewish community Albert Elharrar said Jewish groups believe the shops were deliberately targeted at the time of commemorations for the 2015 attacks.
“There’s a link between the graffiti and the fire,” he told AFP. “It’s clear that they came for no other reason but to attack a kosher shop on the day of the commemorations.”
Elharrar told the AP that the manager of the shop is Muslim. “That shows the spirit of the city of Creteil where the Jewish community lives,” he said.
Israel’s ambassador to France Aliza Bin Noun called the act of vandalism on the third anniversary of the attack a “shameful provocation.”
A record number of French Jews have immigrated to Israel since 2015, amid growing violent anti-Semitism in the country.