French Antisemitism Watch
Charles Johnson
Sun Apr 1, 2007 at 4:08 pm PDT • Views: 220
Dozens of Jewish tombs damaged in northern France.
PARIS (Reuters) - More than 50 Jewish tombs were damaged overnight in a cemetery in the northern French city of Lille, a local government official said on Sunday.
“Fifty-one tombstones were damaged, of which two were broken. The vertical part was separated from the horizontal part or broken,” a spokeswoman for the local prefecture said, adding that none of the tombs were broken into. Police had opened an inquiry and called on any witnesses to the incident, which occurred in the Jewish section of the Lille-South cemetery, to come forward, she said.
Interior Minister Francois Baroin condemned the attack, in which several tombstones were knocked over. “Francois Baroin … condemns with the greatest firmness the acts committed in the night from Saturday to Sunday,” his office said in a statement, adding that the damage was “intolerable”.
France is home to western Europe’s biggest Jewish and Muslim communities.
Scientific police inspect desecrated tombstones in the Jewish graveyard of Lille April 1, 2007. Some 52 graves were discovered on Sunday morning to have been desecrated by vandals. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol (FRANCE)
Frank says: