Holocaust memorial and synagogues vandalised with paint in Paris

Yahoo

2 days ago

French police have launched an investigation after a Holocaust memorial and two synagogues were defaced with green paint in the latest anti-Semitic attack in Paris.
The symbolic sites, as well as Chez Marianne, a popular Israeli restaurant in Paris's Jewish quarter, were vandalised in the early hours of Saturday morning, police said.
The Holocaust memorial, the Wall of the Righteous, was doused with green paint, covering the names of 3,900 men and women who helped rescue Jews in France during the Second World War.
Police are looking for a man dressed in black who was caught on CCTV cameras throwing green paint at establishments in Paris's Jewish quarter, called the Marais, at around 4.30 am on Saturday. An opened can of green paint was found at one of the sites.
'I condemn this intimidation in the strongest possible terms,' Anne Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, wrote on social media. 'Anti-Semitism has no place in our city and in our Republic. I have asked the sanitation department to intervene urgently. We will be filing a complaint.'
Bruno Retailleau, France's interior minister, also denounced the incidents. 'Immense disgust at these odious acts targeting the Jewish community,' he wrote on X.
No arrests have been made.
Last week, Mr Retailleau called for 'visible and dissuasive' security measures at Jewish-linked sites amid concerns over possible anti-Semitic acts, and ordered heightened surveillance ahead of Shavuot, an upcoming Jewish holiday.
Around this time last year, the Wall of the Righteous was vandalised with 35 handprints spray-painted in red. The investigation led police back to Bulgarian nationals who were suspected of acting on behalf of Russian intelligence.
The operation was described as a 'copy-paste' from another high-profile incident that dominated the French news cycle in the autumn of 2023, when 250 blue Stars of David were found tagged on Parisian buildings.
French authorities announced that the Stars of David graffiti campaign was part of a larger attempt at Russian interference, aimed at stirring up division and anxiety in France. Individuals from Moldova were arrested in connection with the vandalism.
Commissioned by Russian security forces, a campaign of disinformation was also carried out simultaneously in other countries including Spain, Latvia and Poland, according to French newspaper Le Monde.
At the time, France accused Russia of amplifying the graffiti on social media, calling the campaign a 'new Russian digital interference operation against France' aimed at exploiting international crises to sow confusion and create tensions.
The minister of foreign affairs said 1,095 bots had been found on the X platform publishing nearly 2,600 posts about the tags.
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