France: Assailant attacks soldiers guarding Jewish community center in Nice

A knife-wielding assailant attacked and wounded three French soldiers who were protecting a Jewish community center in Nice, France Tuesday afternoon according to the French JSSNews.

The attack took place at the city’s Israelite Consistory (governing body) at Place Massena, which contains offices of Radio Shalom, according to initial reports. Authorities managed to apprehend the assailant, Moussa Coulibaly, but not before he slashed one soldier in the face, a second in the leg and the third on the chin. The severity of the soldiers’ wounds is unclear, as of this initial report. Coulibaly had been caught riding a city tram illegally, and had been fined, according to officials.

The report comes in the wake of a series of increasingly serious attacks on French military personnel protecting Jewish schools and institutions. Thousands of soldiers tasked with securing Jewish institutions in France endure frequent abuse from passersby, the French Le-Progres site reported Monday.

Last Friday, three unknown assailants harassed two soldiers who were stationed outside the Nahalat Moshe Jewish school in Paris. The trio, who reportedly pointed weapons at the guards, shouted antisemitic slogans and swore at them. Before fleeing, the three performed a “quenelle” gesture, an inverted Nazi salute popularized by the notorious antisemitic provocateur and comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala.

Algemeiner