French Jewish organisations on Sunday condemned an anti-Semitic attack in Paris in which a Jewish teenager was beaten by a gang of five youths with metal bars.
The 17-year-old was wearing a kippah when he was attacked in Paris' multi-ethnic 19th district on Saturday evening, according to Ariel Goldmann, vice president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France.
Goldmann said the teenager was in a coma.
"There is no doubt that this is an anti-Semitic act," he said.
"I call on authorities to do everything possible to arrest those responsible," said Goldmann.
Police said they had detained five youths in connection with the beating.
Sammy Gholzan, from the Bureau for Viligance on Anti-Semitism, said a group of six or seven youths attacked the teenager with metal bars and "smashed his skull".
He said the young man was a member of the local Lubavitch community.
Source: IOL (English)
Update:
"Very quickly, this was labeled anti-Semitic, but maybe it was a settling of accounts," wonders Celine Chalono, a journalist from Martinique. "In fact, it could be both. But it is this same logic here that makes me mad in this case. The reports all say black, without specifying that these kids are all African and Muslim, poor and very poorly integrated, whereas many blacks in France are Catholic and from the French Antilles, and we are integrated."
Source: Haaretz (English)
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