NEW YORK – The World Jewish Congress has strongly condemned the “heinous act of aggression” carried out against an 8-year-old boy wearing a yarmulke in France, and called for global support in demanding that French authorities treat the incident with utmost severity and firm judicial and police action.
“The World Jewish Congress stands with the French Jewish community in harshly condemning the provocative and deplorable attack against an innocent child in Sarcelle, France, and demanding immediate action from the French police and judicial system,” said World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder.
“This is a cause for extreme concern and vigilance. We urge French authorities to take severe and punitive measures against the perpetrators of this attack, to make it infinitely clear that it will not tolerate such despicable acts of anti-Semitism or hatred of any kind,” Lauder said.
“This deliberate and heinous of aggression is all the more distressing as it is clearly not an isolated incident. France must do everything in its power to dissuade such acts from happening again. Just this month, authorities dropped terrorism charges against Hasan Diab, the criminal behind the 1980 attack on a Paris synagogue that killed four people. What kind of signal is France sending to the world in callously disregarding such crimes?” Lauder said.
“The president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, Francis Kalifat, has taken immediate and determined action to secure the community and its institutions, and to demand that authorities employ punitive and dissuasive measures to remind society that France’s policy of ‘zero tolerance’ must be applied to the proliferation of anti-Semitic acts and aggression. We urge authorities to take heed. The World Jewish Congress stands ready to support the community in any way possible," Lauder added.
“We cannot sit idly by as Jews in France, or anywhere else in the world, live in fear. The French Jewish community needs strong and critical global support in underscoring that now is not the time simply for compassionate words. It is a time for real action," Lauder said.
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