France: Muslim man suspected of spitting on influential Jewish intellectual

Video posted by the attacker Mehdi Korchi:

Via JTA:

An influential French-Jewish intellectual who has criticized Islam was threatened and allegedly spat on by a young Arab man in Paris.

Eric Zemmour was walking with shopping bags in his hands on April 30 when the incident occurred, the Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, wrote in a statement Thursday, adding that a man identified as Mehdi Korchi filmed himself accosting Zemmour.

Police identified Korchi and plan to indict him for assault, Le Point reported.

Korchi, who appears to have livestreamed himself screaming at Zemmour “I’ll f*** your mother, son of a whore” while following him for minutes, explained in a later video that he had no interest in debating the right-leaning pundit. A video that seems to show him spitting at Zemmour also surfaced, though Korchi denies doing it.

Spitting on people is illegal and violates France’s emergency measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

read more