Office of Paris Jewish student group vandalised
Union of Jewish Students in the UK offers solidarity with counterparts in France following the anti-Semitic attack
British Jewish students have offered their support after someone broke into the office of a Jewish student group at a university in Paris, vandalising with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic graffiti.
The attack on the office of the French Jewish Students Union at the University of Paris came on Wednesday, hours before some 10,000 people participated in a memorial march in Paris for an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who was burned and found dead with 11 stab wounds in what police are calling an anti-Semitic murder.
Among the graffiti written on the walls of the office was “Zionist racist anti-goy office,” and “Palestine will prevail,” as well as “Death to Israel,” and “Viva Arafat,” referring to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
A far-left student group reportedly was protesting on the campus at the time of the vandalism, according to the French daily Le Monde. The group’s protest was not about Israel.
University president Georges Haddad tweeted a condemnation of the attack, calling it “an odious act.” The French Minister of Higher Education Frédérique Vidal called it “shameful.”
The Jewish student leaders said they will ask police to open an investigation.
The Union of Jewish Students condemned the incident, writing on Facebook: “We are disgusted at the ransacking of the Union des Etudiants Juifs de France [ UEJF ]’s Sorbonne office. This disgraceful, vile antisemitic attack on our counterparts used the same tropes we see too often across UK campuses, conflating Jews & Israel in order to justify insidious hatred.
“We stand unwavering in our support of UEJF, and remain dedicated in the continued fight against antisemitism in the UK and abroad.
“Jews will not be silent in the face of antisemitism, and we reiterate the calls we have seen across the UK that enough is enough.
“Our thoughts are with the French Jewish student community at this troubling time as we once again come together and proclaim ‘Je suis Juif’.”
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