He wanted to burn down a symbolic place of the Jewish community and was killed by the police: the specter of anti-Semitic hatred returns to shake France, with the arson attack on the synagogue in Rouen, Normandy. But also Sweden where shots were fired near the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
The French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, denounced an “anti-Semitic act against a sacred place for the Republic”. An attack that “touches us all deeply”, deplores the minister who soon arrived on site in Rouen, to personally condemn “unacceptable, ignoble” violent actions against the Jews of France. “It’s scary, an absolute shock”, underlined the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, speaking of a ‘wounded’ city.
The witness
According to the president of the local Jewish community, Natacha Ben Haïm, “the flames caused enormous damage. I had to carry out an on-site inspection, I can tell you it was terrible”, she testified, adding that “we had a great miracle: the books of the Torah, the sacred books, were not affected, although the fire broke out right next door, everything around it went up in smoke.”
Keystone
The Rabbi of Rouen
The facts
The attack occurred at dawn when an individual, armed with a large knife and an iron bar, threatened the patrol of agents stationed in front of the synagogue, after having set fire to the Israelite temple. According to the Rouen prosecutor, Frédéric Teillet, the man of Algerian origins was killed by the police in the conditions “provided for” by the law, after several warnings issued by the policemen who were guarding the area.
“While (the officers, ed.) were trying to convince him to come down from the roof (of the synagogue, ed.) – the prosecutor specified – he threw the iron bar towards them, then jumped off the roof and went towards running towards a policeman, threatening him with a knife, his arm raised towards him”. The threatened officer then “opened fire five times, hitting the individual four times,” the magistrate explained.
At a press conference in Rouen, Minister Darmanin congratulated the “reactivity and courage” of the police forces. He then announced his intention to decorate the 25-year-old policeman who killed the attacker with a special honor. “I want to rejoice with him here and tell him that he will be decorated by the Republic for his support for the protection of places of worship and people. He made use of his service weapon and I want to say that he was right.”
Keystone
The police in front of the synagogue
The investigation
Justice has opened a first investigation for “arson” against a place of worship, “voluntary violence” against the police as well as a second investigation into the circumstances of the death of the twenty-nine-year-old assailant. He was “a particularly dangerous, particularly violent individual”, the minister said before journalists. Although he was not registered for radicalisation, he had been listed among the wanted persons for “a few weeks”, after his appeal against the refusal of a residence permit for “sick foreigners”, requested in 2022, was rejected in January.
In France, the anti-Semitism alert continues to grow: according to the prime minister, Gabriel Attal, 366 episodes were recorded in the first quarter of 2024, an increase “of 300% compared to the first three months of last year”, i.e. before the attack of Hamas against Israel (7 October 2023) and the Israeli army’s response to Gaza.
Fear also in Stockholm. Swedish police today arrested several people, including a 14-year-old boy, and cordoned off a large area of the city center following suspected gunfire in the area of the Israeli Embassy. The authorities have opened an investigation.
