Man wearing Jewish symbol is beaten, robbed twice in Marseille
A 20-year-old Jewish man wearing a Star of David pendant
was mugged and robbed twice outside Marseille’s main train station.
Two men on a scooter approached the victim on Monday
outside Saint-Charles, a busy train station and shopping mall, and one tore the
golden chain from his neck, the La Provence daily reported. They called him a
“dirty Jew” before fleeing on the scooter, with one of the alleged assailants
carrying the pendant.
A group of young men nearby then approached and hurled
anti-Semitic insults at the victim before stealing an MP3 player and 100 euros,
according to Metro, another daily paper. They also reportedly hit the victim.
Metro reported that police were treating the case not
only as a robbery but mainly as an anti-Semitic attack.
The president of the Marseille metropolitan area, Eugene
Caselli, condemned the incident, which he termed anti-Semitic.
“I want to reassure the family of the victim and the
victim of my support and extend my sympathies,” Caselli said in a statement. “I
want to express my profound indignation and rage at this unacceptable act of
racist violence.”
Though France has seen a 45 percent increase in
anti-Semitic incidents in the eight months since last March, when an Islamist
fanatic killed four Jews in Toulouse, Marseille has seen relatively few such
attacks.
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