‘Cowardly, Odious’ Attack on Jewish Family Condemned by French Government

A brutal robbery that deliberately targeted a Jewish family in Paris has been condemned as “a cowardly act” that “seems directly linked to the religion of its victims.”

France’s Interior Minister Gérard Collomb made the claim on Sunday as he addressed the attack that saw a Jewish family bound, beaten and robbed by attackers who told their victims, “you are Jews, you have money.” The family members were threatened with death, insulted and “violently beaten” during their ordeal.

Mr. Collomb reassured both the victims and the local Jewish community of the government’s “profound support for the family and for the Jewish institutions of France.”

“Every effort will be made to identify and arrest the authors of this odious aggression,” a statement from Collomb’s office said. “The Minister has full confidence in the Paris police services to take determined action in this enquiry.” France’s government would “do everything to indefatigably combat every form of racism and antisemitism, which have no place in the French Republic” the statement continued.

The incident occured last Thursday when three attackers burst into the house in the Paris suburb of Livry-Gargan, cut the electricity and confined members of the family while some were beaten before one managed to escape and alert police. The Israeli Ambassador to France, Aliza Bin-Noun, condemned the incident on Twitter and asserted it was an anti-Semitic attack.

According to AFP, the assailants made off with jewellery, cash and credit cards.

Francis Kalifat, president of the CRIF umbrella grouping of French Jewish organisations, said  “this horrible act is proof that Jews in France are particularly threatened in the street… and even in their homes.”

The attack follows the brutal murder of a 66-year-old Jewish woman by an Islamist migrant in Paris that angered and upset the city’s Jewish community. As Breitbart London reported,  a 27-year-old Malian migrant with convictions for drug-dealing named Kada Traore attacked Dr. Sarah Halimi before throwing her from a balcony while screaming “Allahu Akhbar!” and “Shaitan!” (Arabic for ‘Devil’).

French Jews, the largest community outside of the United States and Israel, have been leaving France at a steady pace since around 2005.

As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, another 5,000 French Jews emigrated to Israel in 2016 alone, continuing a trend that has seen tens of thousands quit the country after a series of attacks targeting the community.

The 5,000 departures in 2016 add to the record 7,900 who left in 2015 and 7,231 in 2014. In total, 40,000 French Jews have emigrated since 2006, according to government figures, with many leaving for the sole reason that they feel safer in the war-torn Middle East than they do in Paris.

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