Spain: Man detained for providing arms for 2015 Paris Jewish supermarket attack

Via i24 News:

Spanish police said Wednesday they had detained a French national suspected of heading a weapons trafficking ring that provided arms to Amedy Coulibaly, who staged a deadly attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris last year.

In a statement, police said Antoine Denevi, a 27-year-old originally from northern France, was detained on Tuesday in the southern Spanish Malaga area after Paris issued a Europe-wide arrest warrant.

He "left the neighboring country (France) weeks after the Paris attacks to escape police action, and settled in the province of Malaga from where he continued his illegal activities using fake papers," the police said.

"It's also been determined that his activities were linked with people of Serbian origin, who may have facilitated his access to arms and munitions."

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France: Paris kosher shop killer planned to strike Jewish school

Via JTA:

The Islamist who killed four Jews at a kosher supermarket near Paris may have attempted to murder children at a Jewish school shortly before, the French media reported.

The report Tuesday on BFMTV was based on an interview with a woman who witnessed Amedy Coulibaly cause a traffic accident and then kill a police officer south of Paris after the officer approached the scene of the accident in Montrouge, south of Paris. Coulibaly fled the scene.
One day later, on Jan. 9, Coulibaly killed his Jewish victims at the Hyper Cacher market on the eastern edge of Paris. He was killed by police hours after a siege at the market.

“Police told me that this man was armed and following a plan,” said the witness, who was also involved in the accident and was only identified as Anne. “That he had a Jewish school right next to where I had my accident and that the accident messed up his plans, so instead of killing children at a Jewish school, he killed a police officer.”  more

France: Hyper Cacher Terrorist Kill Shopper After Victim Revealed He Was Jewish

Via Algemeiner:

Footage filmed by Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly during his killing spree inside the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in January shows him asking a customer his nationality before shooting him dead after the victim replies that he is Jewish, the BBC reported on Thursday, citing a transcript of the video obtained by the French website Le Nouvel Observateur.

In the 7-minute clip, Coulibaly asks the hostage what his origin is and when the man replies “Jewish,” Coulibaly kills him instantly. The gunman also shouts “Nobody move” before grabbing another customer, asking his name and then shooting him dead.

“So you know why I am here then. Allahu Akbar,” he yells in the footage, according to Le Nouvel Observateur.

Coulibaly goes on an antisemitic rant in the video and screams “Stand up or I’ll kill you” at the hostages. He also makes further antisemitic remarks in response to one woman who tries telling him the hostages are innocent, according to a transcript of the clip.

France: Jewish prisoner attacked for voicing opposition to the Charlie Hebdo murders

Via CFCA:

A Jewish prisoner in Perpignan was attacked in early February for voicing opposition to the Charlie Hebdo murders.

Another prisoner got upset, slashed him with a razor blade and threatened "I'll kill you, you dirty Jew, I'll slash you because you're a Jew."

New conspiracy theory: Rothschilds planned attack on Charlie Hebdo in order to make money

A recent conspiracy theory making the rounds in leftist circles: The Rothschilds bought Charlie Hebdo just before it was attacked.  The attack suddenly made the magazine much more valuable, didn't it?

Le Republica - Rothschilds and Charlie Hebdo

The conspiracy theory was published by some left wing news-sites and blogs, such as the Spanish La Republica and the Portuguese blog Xatoo.

The conspiracy is based on a recent interview by one of the Rothschilds in the Dutch Quote Magazine, which said as follows:

France is on fire after the cowardly attack on Charlie Hebdo, and the spectacular developments afterwards. The newspaper Libération, where next week’s satirical magazine – fortunately – will be produced, has recently fallen in the hands of a descendant of the famous bankers’ dynasty De Rothschild.

(...) 

‘There has been quite some discussion about the takeover of Libération by my uncle Édouard baron de Rothschild’, says Philippe. ‘Some family members wanted to block the purchase, because the medium would make us a political force. We wanted to avoid that at all cost. We have no interest in politics, at least not towards the outside world. In the end, the critics within our family were overruled.’

First, we're not talking about Charlie Hebdo, but rather about Libération.

Second, Quote Magazine is wrong.  Libération was recently bought by Patrick Drahi.  A Jew, but not a Rothschild.  The Rothschilds bought a share in Libération in 2005.

But conspiracy-theorists never really care about facts, do they?

France: Man burns Israeli flag in front of Hyper-Cacher

Via Le Parisien:

A 38-year-old man was arrested for burning an Israeli flag in front of the Hyper-Cacher where four Jews were murdered last month.

UK: Jews afraid to go to synagogue, shops

British Jews are frightened to attend synagogue and the shops in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, the former Chief Rabbi has said.

Lord Sacks said anxiety among Jews was at a “record high” in the face of an enduring “virus of hate”.

More: The Telegraph

France: Charlie Hebdo march co-organizers promote anti-Semitic violence

 Some prominent French Jewish figures boycotted the march because it was co-organized by far-left organizations that they hold responsible for promoting anti-Semitic violence.

“Some of the people walking today are the same people who walked against Israel last summer,” said Philippe Karsenty, the deputy mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, in reference to anti-Semitic violence during protests against Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. “This is completely hypocritical.”

Many of the marchers who carried “I am Charlie” signs “would never carry a sign reading ‘I am Jewish’ or ‘I am Hyper Cacher,’” he said in reference to the supermarket that was attacked.

A vigil on Saturday night outside Hyper Cacher drew approximately 2,000 people and featured hundreds of Israeli flags and the spontaneous singing of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.

“Look around, there are almost only Jews here,” said Serge Bitton, a resident of the Paris suburb of Saint-Mande. “The absence of non-Jews tells you everything you need to know about how French society feels about the attacks on our community.”

CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, and the Union of French Jewish Students of France, or UEJF, called on members to attend Sunday’s march.

But the leaders of the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism stayed away for reasons similar to the ones expressed by Karsenty.

More: Times of Israel

France: Media reports on anti-Semitic massacre (without Jews)

When the French government first learned of terrorist attack on the store, its response was strong and direct. President François Hollande condemned this “appalling act of anti-Semitism,” while Prime Minister Manuel Valls was no less lucid. Appearing at the store soon after the police ended the siege, with the deaths of Amedy Coulibaly and four of his hostages, Valls declared: “We are all French Jews.” He then repeated a claim he has made before: “France without Jews would not be France.”

Yet, a glance at the French media’s treatment of the event leaves the impression that what took place was an anti-Semitic massacre without Jews. The press’s word of choice for the victims was “hostage,” while their Jewish identity was mentioned only rarely. There was a telling exchange published in the newspaper Libération between Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Annette Levy Willard. First heaved into fame by the student rebellion of 1968, the German-French Cohn-Bendit has since become one of the most respected and well-liked leaders of the European Left, while Levy-Willard has carved a long and impressive career as a journalist and documentary filmmaker. Oh, and while both hail from Jewish background, neither ever thought of themselves as such.


Until now, that is. As he listened to the news of the siege, Cohn-Bendit confessed: “My immediate reaction was not one I usually have: ‘I’m Jewish!’ Because these Jews were killed simply because they were Jews.” While acknowledging the horror that took place at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, and the imperative to fight for the liberty of thought and expression, Cohn-Bendit distinguished it from the horror at the supermarket. “I’ve the sentiment we’ve gone backward seventy years,” he told Levy-Willard. “When the sole reason one can kill you is because you are Jewish, an unspeakable barbarism has returned.”

More: Jewish Daily Forward

Sweden: Threats to Jews double after Paris attacks

“The threats have at least doubled in Sweden,” Lena Posner-Koerosi of the Council of Jewish Communities told AFP.

Security has been increased around Jewish institutions, particularly in the capital Stockholm, police spokesman Lars Bystroem said.

More: Times of Israel

UK: MP tweets that Nentayahu made his 'feel sick'

Israel’s ambassador to London called Sunday for British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to discipline a member of parliament who declared it made him feel ill to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend the mass demonstration of unity against terrorism that was held in Paris at the beginning of the week.

MP David Ward, a member of Clegg’s Liberal Democrat party, posted a short message on his Twitter account as some 50 visiting heads of state and top diplomats led the march through the streets of the French capital on Sunday. 

“#Netanyahu in Paris march – what!!!! Makes me feel sick,” Ward wrote at the time.

More: Times of Israel

France: Muslims believe Jews staged terror attacks

A Daily Beast reporter told MSNBC that she had received that explanation while surveying people about the attacks that left 17 people dead, including four Jewish men, in Paris’s immigrant sections.

Many people, Dana Kennedy said, were of the opinion that Jews had staged the series of deadly terror incidents to make Muslims look bad, though one went even further with his explanation.

“One person told me that they weren’t just regular Jews that were doing this but in fact but a race of magical shape-shifting Jews that were master manipulators that could be everywhere at the same time,” Kennedy said.

More: Times of Israel

UK: Conservative politician links French Jewish shops to Gaza

A Conservative councillor from Bishop’s Stortford has apologised after he publicly posted on Twitter an anti-Semitic tweet earlier today.

In response to a tweet urging people to stand with Paris’ Kosher shops after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, Cllr Colin Woodward had posted that there were “Probably more open than shops in #GazaUnderAttack.” Four people were mercilessly killed by terrorists after been taken hostage in a Kosher supermarket in Paris leading the French police to close all Jewish shops in Paris out of fear for the safety of customers and owners.

More: Right of Centre

France: Pro-Palestinians target Jews in front of HyperCasher

Via LDJ Paris:

A dozen pro-Palestinian protesters shouted insults at an LDJ protest in front of the HyperCasher shop in Paris, where four Jews were killed last Friday.

Sweden: Media ignores Jewish aspect of Paris 'hostage situation'

Harry Amster writes in SvD that Swedish media generally ignored the 'Jewish aspect' of the terrorist attack on the Hyper Cacher in Paris.

A Friday radio show (Studio Ett) never wondered why the terrorists chose a Jewish target and what this meant for French Jews.  This continued through the evening TV news.

The Swedish media in general focused on the increased risk of Islamophobia, but didn't ask themselves how French Jews felt when they brought in the Sabbath while their brothers and sisters were being held hostage in a supermarket.  At most, they mentioned that the hostages included mothers and children.

On Sunday, the  Jewish issue was brought up twice in a two-hour show.  Antisemitism was on the agenda, but stayed there.

While the Charlie Hebdo attack was described as 'terrorism', Swedish media preferred to call the attack against Jews 'a hostage situation'.

France: Islamist violence is compelling large numbers of Jews to flee

Jeffrey Goldberg writes:

Murdered by Mohamed Mehra

The massacre at a kosher supermarket in Paris on Friday reinforced a fear, expressed openly and with distressing frequency by many in France’s half-million-strong Jewish community, that Islamist violence is compelling large numbers of Jews to flee. Already, several thousand have left over the past few years.

But it is not merely the physical safety of France’s Jews that is imperiled by anti-Semitic violence, the country’s prime minister, Manuel Valls, argues, but the very idea of the French Republic itself.

In an interview conducted before the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket massacres, Valls told me that if French Jews were to flee in large numbers, the soul of the French Republic would be at risk. “The choice was made by the French Revolution in 1789 to recognize Jews as full citizens,” Valls told me. “To understand what the idea of the republic is about, you have to understand the central role played by the emancipation of the Jews. It is a founding principle.”

"There is a new anti-Semitism in France." Valls, a Socialist who is the son of Spanish immigrants, describes the threat of a Jewish exodus from France this way: “If 100,000 French people of Spanish origin were to leave, I would never say that France is not France anymore. But if 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure.” I met Valls at the Hotel Matignon, the prime minister’s residence [...]

Valls, who on Saturday declared that France was now at war with radical Islam, has become a hero to his country’s besieged Jews for speaking bluntly about the threat of Islamist anti-Semitism, a subject often discussed in euphemistic terms by the country’s political and intellectual elite.

His fight, as interior minister, to ban performances of the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne (the innovator of the inverted Nazi salute known as the quenelle) endeared him to the country’s Jewish leadership, and he is almost alone on the European left in calling anti-Zionism a form of anti-Semitism.

“There is a new anti-Semitism in France,” he told me. “We have the old anti-Semitism, and I’m obviously not downplaying it, that comes from the extreme right, but this new anti-Semitism comes from the difficult neighborhoods, from immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, who have turned anger about Gaza into something very dangerous. Israel and Palestine are just a pretext. There is something far more profound taking place now.”

More: The Atlantic

France: Third of Jewish students in Paris afraid to go to school

Between 30-40% of students in Jewish schools in Paris didn't show up for school this Monday.   Many parents are afraid to send their kids out of the house and the kids are afraid they'll be attacked at school or on the way.

Soldiers and police were stationed in all Jewish schools.  A whole squadron was stationed in the Cheder Lubavitch school after a definite threat of a terror attack, and after shooting was heard nearby.

In the Pardes Chana school, visitors were asked to show IDs.  Until now the school was guarded in the morning by two policemen, now it's guarded 24 hours a day, with four armed policemen standing at the ready outside and a patrol van ready just in case.

More: Nana10

Netherlands: Pro-Israel rally scrapped over security concerns

Citing security concerns, organizers of a pro-Israel rally in Amsterdam postponed the event indefinitely after meeting with police and city officials.

The rally, which was announced last month as scheduled to take place on January 11, was “postponed because of the current situation in Paris and in coordination with the police, the municipality and security,” members of the Holland4Israel group wrote Friday on their Facebook page. The group did not name a new date.

More: Jerusalem Post

France: Landmark Paris synagogue closes on Shabbat for first time since World War II

The Grand Synagogue of Paris shuttered ahead of Shabbat services on Friday night in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks across the city, including a siege on a Jewish market by an Islamic extremist.

The synagogue was evacuated during the event, Le Monde reported, and did not reopen for services on Friday night. The closure marks the first time since World War II that the synagogue, a Paris landmark, was not open for worship on the Sabbath, according to the Orthodox Union.

“The Jewish community feels itself on the edge of a seething volcano,” said Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Paris-based director for international relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Hostages in a kosher supermarket held [up] by an African jihadist, who reportedly already killed two victims,” he said. “The scenes are out of a war movie. But the war is undeclared as long as the sickness is not publicly named as a state of emergency. A culture of excuse exonerates the perpetrators as ‘disaffected, alienated, frustrated, unemployed.’ No other group of frustrated unemployed has resorted to such behavior.”

More: Jerusalem Post

France: "Dirty Jew, you should stop working for Charlie Hebdo, otherwise we’re going to kill you"

The sole woman killed in the massacre at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday was targeted because she was a Jew, her cousin has asserted.
Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, Sophie Bramly, the cousin of Jewish Charlie Hebdo columnist Elsa Cayat, was asked whether she believed that Cayat had been “specifically targeted.”

“Yes, I do,” Bramley responded. “They spared all the women, and she was the only one killed, and she was the only one Jewish.”

Bramley added that Cayat’s brother had told her that the columnist had been receiving threatening phone calls for “a while.”

“Anonymous phone calls, obviously, and I can’t say that it was the same team of people,” Bramley, a film producer, said, “but the calls were saying basically, ‘Dirty Jew, you should stop working for Charlie Hebdo, otherwise we’re going to kill you.’ So if you put two and two together, it seems like, yeah, she was definitely killed because she was Jewish.”

More: Algemeiner