Memorial to Victim of 2015 Massacre at Kosher Market in Paris Vandalized, Police Allegedly ‘Didn’t Move’ After Being Told
by Algemeiner Staff
A monument to one of the four Jewish victims of the Islamist terror attack against a kosher market in eastern Paris in January 2015 has been vandalized.
The wrecked memorial stone dedicated to Yohan Cohen, a 20-year-old worker at the market who was shot dead by gunman Amedy Coulibaly at the beginning of a day-long siege, was discovered on Wednesday morning.
Francois Pupponi — who represents the district that includes Sarcelles, the location of the memorial, in the French parliament — strongly condemned the “desecration.”
“I want the vandals arrested and punished to the maximum for their despicable acts,” Pupponi declared on Twitter.
C’est avec la plus grande fermeté que je condamne la profanation de la stèle que j’ai faite érigée à #Sarcelles à la mémoire de Yohan Cohen victime de l’attentat #antisémite de l’#Hypercacher à Paris. pic.twitter.com/BUGQuxwXMC
— François Pupponi (@fpupponi) May 26, 2021
He pledged to work closely with local law enforcement “to do everything possible to identify and arrest the culprits as quickly as possible.”
However, a statement from the BNVCA — a Paris-based Jewish organization that assists victims of antisemitic attacks — claimed that local police had failed to react despite being alerted to the vandalism by the head of the local Jewish community.
The BNVCA said that Alain Bensimon, the president of the Jewish community of Garges-lès-Gonesse, had spotted a black man wearing khaki pants and sunglasses vandalizing the memorial to Cohen.
The statement quoted Bensimon saying: “I called the police to warn them, they didn’t move.” He added that the assailant was carrying a bag containing a large metal bar.
The memorial stone to Cohen was first unveiled in Nov. 2015 by the French Interior Minister at the time, Bernard Cazeneuve.