Who’s the surprising suspect behind the antisemitic graffiti on a kosher French restaurant?

According to French-language media, the police were able to identify the perpetrator due to extensive CCTV footage of the incident and the suspect walking nearby.

By World Israel News Staff

French police revealed on Sunday that an individual confessed to writing antisemitic graffiti on a Kosher restaurant in a Paris suburb – but the identity of the suspect likely came as a surprise to many.

A 74-year-old Jewish man admitted to police that he was the culprit who spraypainted the words “Jewish thief” and “Jew” on the facade of the restaurant earlier this week, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

The man reportedly said that he is engaged in a financial dispute with the owner of the restaurant, who owes him money in unpaid rent.

He is due to be tried in December for vandalism.

According to French-language media, the police were able to identify the perpetrator due to extensive CCTV footage of the incident and the suspect walking nearby.

Last week, antisemitic graffiti was discovered on the outside of the Mr. Schnitz restaurant, which serves schnitzel, fried chicken breast that is a common street food in Israel.

The vandalism sent shockwaves through the local Paris Jewish community, which was already reeling from a series of antisemitic incidents related to widespread rioting earlier this summer.

Immediately following the incident, Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), wrote on Twitter that antisemites “will not win.” He blasted what he called commonplace, “living room antisemitism which corrupts the minds,” saying that it spills over into “the antisemitism on the streets…whose violence we see with our own eyes.”

Also at the time, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that he was “deeply shocked by these unbearable antisemitic inscriptions” and that he had full confidence in the “great responsiveness of the police” to apprehend the perpetrator.

“Jews, who make up less than one per cent of the population, are subjected to more than half the racist acts committed in France,” Francis Kalifat, the former president of CRIF, told the Spectator. He also noted that the true numbers are probably far higher.

“A lot of people don’t make an official complaint,” Kalifat said. “Either because it serves no purpose or because they fear reprisals.”

At least 12 Jews have been murdered in France specifically due to their religious identity since 2003.

CRIFEuropean antisemitismFranceFrench JewsJews in France