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NEWS
Arson and Vandalism in a Jewish School in
Marseilles
by Arnon Yaffeh, Paris
Two buildings in the Jewish Gan Pardess elementary school in
Marseilles were set on fire in an attack this past Sunday (11
Cheshvan) that was clearly motivated by antisemitism. No one
was in the school when the attack took place. Antisemitic
slogans were scrawled on the walls of the main structure. One
read: "Bin Laden Will Win."
On Sunday, Jews who live near the school saw black smoke
rising from its yard and called the fire department. Clement
Yonah, the head of Marseille Jewish community, said that the
authorities attribute the arson to "youths" (generally),
though the clear intent is a gang of Arab youths. The school
is located near a quarter populated by Arab immigrants. Up
until the latest incident, the school had suffered harassment
but not from actual attacks.
Yonah said that slogans scrawled on the school's wall read:
"Death to the Jews" and "Bin Laden Will Win." The
government's commissioner in Marseilles visited the school,
along with Yonah, this past Monday. Yonah asked him try to
stamp out the antisemitic violence in Marseilles, but
cautioned that care should be taken that the violence of
juvenile delinquents not be transformed into general
antisemitism.
Unlike the Jews in the suburbs of Paris and in the Arab
quarters there, Marseilles' Jews have not suffered directly
from the Arabs in the past. However, since the start of war
in Afghanistan, the atmosphere has become more tense. Arab
youths cheer Bin Laden at sport events, and in a number of
instances Arabs forcibly removed Jewish children from
buses.
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