Three youths wearing Che Guevara t-shirts sprayed tear gas on a Jew stepping out of a shul in the city of Nimes in the south of France. Raul Sadon came across the threesome following Mincha on Sunday as they were spray-painting swastikas and antisemitic graffiti on the wall of the synagogue. Other congregants found him lying on the sidewalk and saw the three youths slowly drawing away.
The heads of the local Muslim community denounced the attack. The police tried to claim the three youths were from the extreme right, but Jews responded that it seems unlikely right-wing extremists would don t-shirts depicting South American revolutionary Che Guevara.
The Jewish community was still unsettled following last Friday's antisemitic attack against David Pariente, who was assaulted in a central square in Strasbourg by a Moroccan man clad in a djellaba who beat him with an iron rod and stabbed him in the chest with a knife. The police arrested the assailant, describing him — as usual in these cases — as "out of his right mind."
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux promised to prosecute him for attempted aggravated murder through antisemitic violence, if he is found capable of standing trial. A French man who converted to Islam and was with the Moroccan was released early in the week without facing charges. The two left a mosque and descended on Pariente, a dentist wearing a yarmulke. Pariente was discharged from the hospital on Monday.
Sami Gozlan, head of a Jewish organization against antisemitism, noted several Jews have been attacked on Fridays after their assailants left the mosque sermon and he asked the Interior Minister to investigate what is said inside.
The imam of Strasbourg denounced the attack. On Monday several hundred protesters gathered outside the shul to demonstrate against the antisemitic attack.
