Macron welcomes arrest in West Bank of Palestinian suspect in 1982 Paris attack
France’s president has welcomed the arrest this week in the occupied West Bank of a key Palestinian suspect in a 1982 terror attack in Paris, calling it the result of “excellent co-operation” with the Palestinian Authority.
The suspect, Hicham Harb, 70, is accused of overseeing the militants who stormed the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Rue des Rosiers on August 9 1982.
Six people were killed and 22 were wounded in what became one of modern France’s most notorious antisemitic attacks.
The machine-gun and grenade attack in Paris’s Jewish quarter, attributed to the Abu Nidal Organisation, shocked the nation and underscored the global reach of Palestinian militant groups at the time.
France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press it was informed through Interpol that Palestinian authorities arrested Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, known as Hicham Harb, under a 2015 international warrant linked to the Rue des Rosiers attack.
He was formally indicted by French judges on July 31 on charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with the attack. Harb and five other men in the case were referred to trial. He is the first of the group to be arrested.
The 1982 assault began at midday when a grenade was tossed into the crowded dining room of Jo Goldenberg’s restaurant, which was serving about 50 customers.
Gunmen then burst in with Polish-made machine guns, firing at diners and spraying bullets at passers-by as they fled into the narrow Rue des Rosiers.
President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X that the arrest was the result of “excellent co-operation with the Palestinian Authority” and described it as “an additional step for justice and truth”.
“France does not forget,” he added. “It always sanctions and punishes. Justice will prevail.”
Mr Macron said he hopes for a speedy extradition.
Investigators say the arrests of other suspects – all believed to be abroad if still alive, in countries including Jordan, Norway and the Palestinian territories – have long been complicated by political sensitivities and lack of co-operation from foreign governments.
France’s Jewish community, the largest in Europe, has repeatedly pressed authorities to pursue justice in the Rue des Rosiers case.
Mr Macron is expected to announce France’s recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week – a step that would make France one of the most influential Western powers to endorse Palestinian statehood in recent years.
