Anti-Semitic Violence Sweeps France

M A R S E I L L E, France, April 3 -- The tensions in the Middle East provoke strong feelings — even in distant places.

At Orly Airport outside Paris this week, Palestinian and Israeli demonstrations turned violent. Peaceful protests spiraled into fistfights, as the latest sign that the mounting frustration in the Middle East has made its way to France.

Brandishing signs reading "Killer Sharon" and "Killer Arafat," the protesters symbolized the growing sense of unease in France, which has been home to a string of anti-Jewish attacks in recent days. Most of the attacks have been blamed on Arabs who immigrated to France.

Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin appealed for calm Tuesday, calling for an end to the recent wave of anti-Semitism. In a radio interview, Jospin said, "Showing solidarity over the Middle East is one thing. But it is totally unacceptable that this leads to conflict between communities, that some blame Jews for what is happening there."

A Comparison to ‘Kristallnacht’

On Saturday morning, masked assailants smashed stolen cars into a synagogue in Lyon before setting them ablaze. A witness said a group of approximately 15 youths stormed the building. No one was injured in the incident, but the synagogue was destroyed.

Another synagogue, in the southern city of Marseille, was burned to the ground over the weekend. The same building was the target of another attack last October when assailants hurled a Molotov cocktail at it.

The Marseille attack occurred after police had completed a patrol of the synagogue, as part of tighter security measures recently employed around Jewish sites across the country. Anti-Semitic assailants also attempted to burn down a pavilion at a Jewish cemetery in Strasbourg and fired at a Jewish butcher shop near Toulouse over the weekend.

Some Jewish leaders in France have compared the growing wave of anti-Semitism in France to the sentiment in Nazi Germany, and one went so far as to make reference to "Kristallnacht," the infamous night in 1938 when Jewish people, shops and businesses were attacked across Germany.