“Tragedy averted” in antisemitic attack on French synagogue

The Prime Minister of France, Gabriel Attal, has condemned an attack against a synagogue la Grande-Motte (near Montpellier) on 24 June that could have caused fatalities.

After a manhunt involving 200 police officers, a young man was arrested for trying to set the Jewish religious building ablaze. He had set fire to two of the entry doors of the Beth Yaacov synagogue.

The suspect also set fire to two cars in the adjoining parking area, one of them with a gas canister that exploded and injured a policeman.

According to Franceinfo and Le Parisien, CCTV images show the suspect with a Palestinian flag around the time of the attack, which happened on 8:30am.

L’attaque antisémite contre une synagogue choque, révolte, scandalise tous les républicains de notre pays.

Je me suis rendu, avec @GDarmanin, à La Grande-Motte pour dire à nos compatriotes de confession juive que la République se tiendra toujours à leurs côtés.

Pour remercier… pic.twitter.com/xgD9uyca0h

— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) August 24, 2024

France’s President Emmanul Macron condemned the “terrorist act” and said “worship places must be protected” in the country, assing that “the fight against antisemitism is a constant battle”.

The Interior Ministry of France activated a plan to “inmediately reinforce the security of Jewish places of worship”. PM Gabriel Attal said the reaction of the police had helped “avoid an absolute tragedy”.

The head of the government added: “To attack a French citizen because he is Jewish is to attack all French citizens. Tolerating or legitimising verbal attacks paves the way for physical attacks”.

Meanwhile, Yonathan Arfi of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) said: “The use of a gas canister in a car at a time when we believe worshippers are arriving at a synagogue is not a simple arson, it is not a simple attack on a building, on a place of worship, it is a desire to kill”.

France has seen a rise in antisemitic attacks since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war, but such attacks are not new. For over a decade, the country has developed a plan to protect synagogues and Christian churches in a context in which the Islamist threat has been constant.