Outrage in France after anti-Semitic attack on young mother

Politicians and religious leaders in France expressed outrage following an anti-Semitic attack on a young mother in which a gang cut her hair and daubed swastikas on her belly.

The non-Jewish woman was with her 13-month-old toddler when she was set upon in a suburban Paris commuter train, police said

No-one came to her rescue as the gang of six cut her hair, tore open her shirt and drew swastikas on her belly.

President Jacques Chirac expressed a sense of “dread”, Jewish and Muslim leaders condemned the attack and others said it was a horrifying example of how anti-Semitism and racism are eating away at France.

“To be Jewish today in France has become an aggravating circumstance,” said Sylvain Zenouda, of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, adding that even those who might be mistaken for Jews risk mistreatment.

The attack occurred at around 9.30am on Friday, on a train that would normally be filled with commuters. News of it only began spreading over the weekend, stunning France.

Police were looking for the culprits, described as about 15 to 20 years old. Investigators combed surveillance cameras at stations in the area, north of Paris, for clues, LCI television reported.

Deputy Minister for Victims Rights Nicole Guedj called on commuters who witnessed the attack to step forward.

“Those who can help must do so today,” she said on LCI television. “It’s the duty of every good citizen.”

According to the police account, the young mother, not identified by name, was accosted by the gang of six, armed with knives, in what apparently began as a robbery. They grabbed her backpack, taking money and a credit card but changed course when they saw an identity card. It showed that she lived in the well-to-do 16th district of Paris.

“There are only Jews in the 16th,” police quoted the culprits as saying.

They then cut her hair “to keep a souvenir”, using their knives to do so, according to news reports, and opened her shirt, also with knives, then drew swastikas on her belly with a marking pen.

The infant fell from its stroller in the melee. Neither the mother nor infant was seriously injured, police said. None of the passengers on the train came to the woman’s rescue, police said.

The Interior Ministry pointed out that the young victim was not Jewish and police said she no longer lives in Paris’s 16th district.

That the band of six attackers mistook their victim’s identity did nothing to soften the reality of the horror for France, where attacks on both Jews and Muslims have escalated over the past several years and in 2004 reached a peak.

In figures released on Friday – the day of the train attack – the Interior Ministry said hate crimes rose sharply in the first half of the year.

The ministry tallied 135 anti-Jewish acts through June 30, as well as 375 threats. The figure was nearly as high as the numbers from all of last year, when a total of 593 anti-Jewish acts or threats were registered.

Racist attacks, often against Muslims, also rose. There were 95 such attacks and 161 threats through June, compared to a total of 232 such crimes reported last year.

France is home to the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe, and Muslims are often blamed for attacks on Jews.

The president of the umbrella group the French Council for the Muslim Faith, Dalil Boubakeur, called the attack “sickening” and “low-grade banditry”. He cautioned against confusing such acts with Muslims, saying that could “dirty a community that formally (forbids) such odious acts”.