France's Holocaust memorial, two synagogues and a restaurant in central Paris were vandalized with green paint overnight, according to police sources cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday, May 31, prompting condemnation from government and city officials.
At the foot of the façade of the restaurant Chez Marianne, located next to Rue de Rosiers, an open pot of paint was found. The police also found paint splattered on the Tournelles synagogue, the Agoudas Hakehilos synagogue and the Shoah Memorial, all in the 4th arrondissement of the capital. No messages or claims of responsibility have been found at this stage.
The incidents were reported by police officers on patrol at around 5:15 am. Footage from the Memorial's CCTV cameras showed a person dressed in black spray-painting the wall at around 4:30 am.
"I am deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community," said French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on X. No arrests have been made. Paris authorities would be lodging a complaint over the paint incident, the city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said.
"I condemn these acts of intimidation in the strongest possible terms. Antisemitism has no place in our city or in our Republic," she said in a statement released to the press.
There was also strong emotion from the mayor of Paris Centre, Ariel Weil, who wrote on X: "After red paint, now green paint. This time, the gesture is more precise: the Shoah Memorial, synagogues and a 'Jewish' restaurant. After all, it's just heritage. And it will surely save lives. We know where 'militant' acts begin, but we don't know where they end." Weil shared images of buildings covered in green paint.
In a message sent to prefects on Friday and seen by AFP, Minister Retailleau called for increased security measures for the Jewish community during the Shavuot holiday, from the evening of June 1 to the evening of June 3.
He explained these measures by citing "persistent international tensions, particularly in the Middle East," which "require extreme vigilance, especially with regard to demonstrations and places of worship." The minister also noted that "antisemitic acts account for more than 60% of anti-religious acts, and the Jewish community is particularly vulnerable."
The president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, told AFP on Saturday that he felt "great sadness and indignation upon seeing the images this morning of Jewish sites that had been vandalized." Arfi said he hoped that the perpetrator, "since it is clearly just one person on the surveillance cameras," would be apprehended "as quickly as possible so that we can find out the motives behind his actions."
"Whether or not this is an attempt to destabilize from outside, it is an act that targets the Jewish community in France and creates a feeling of stigmatization among Jews, which is always a violent feeling," he continued, referring to "images that hurt."
"That's where it's tragic, because whatever the perpetrator's motives, the consequence is the same: It's a form of violent stigmatization of Jews," he insisted.