Days After Synagogue Attack, Assailants Open Fire at Jewish Restaurant in Paris
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by Dave Bender
Al Haeche restaurant. Photo: Courtesy.
Unknown assailants opened fire at a Kosher restaurant in Paris’ 19th Arrondissement Wednesday night, apparently using an air gun as in a similar attack on a synagogue in the neighborhood earlier in the week, the French website JSS News reported.
The owner of the Al Haeche restaurant arrived at 7 am, and discovered a small impact crater on the front window.
There were no injuries or other damage in the attack.
The damage, possibly caused by a pellet gun, resembled that of a shooting Monday night at a window of the David Ben Ichay Synagogue, about a kilometer away.
The round went through the closed window of the religious center’s office – the only lit room – but did not hit the synagogue’s Rabbi Lousky or an assistant who were present. The Jewish National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA) condemned the latest assault, which they described “as anti-Semitic because they deliberately aimed at a kosher restaurant.”
Paris Al Haeche shooting. Screenshot: BNCVA.
BNVCA head, Sammy Ghozlan, said that “Regardless of the projectile, whether stone, lead ball or pellet, the BNVCA considers the intention and gesture as criminal and anti-Jewish.”
The group called for increased monitoring of the vicinity, which contains a large Jewish population, as well as many places of worship and kosher shops.
France was hit by three separate attacks by Muslim suspects in the last week, two of them using vehicles to ram into pedestrians, and the third a stabbing attack on police in Tours.
The BNVCA recommended that all those responsible for synagogues, Jewish schools and other institutions increase their vigilance and caution.
About 1,000 French soldiers have been deployed to provide increased security in some areas in the wake of the series of what local officials are calling unrelated attacks by “crazed” assailants.
On Dec. 1st, the Paris Jewish community was shocked by a brutal rape and home invasion by several Muslim suspects, who perpetrated the assault “because you are Jews,” according to the female victim’s testimony to police.
Roger Cukierman, the veteran president of CRIF, the representative body of French Jews, has issued an extraordinary warning concerning the potential fate of his community.
“Jews will leave in large numbers and France will fall into the hands of either Shari’a Law or the Front National,” Cukierman declared at a rally against anti-Semitism in the suburb of Creteil last Sunday, to loud applause from the assembled crowd.
