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Paris Hotel Refuses to Serve Israeli Family as Antisemitism Continues to Spiral in France
Anti-Israel demonstration supporting the BDS movement, Paris France, June 8, 2024. Photo: Claire Serie / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
An Israeli family visiting Paris was denied service at a hotel after an attendant noticed their Israeli passports, continuing a record spike in antisemitism across France that has increasingly led to violence against the Jewish community.
According to the French magazine Le Point, the Israeli family of three intended to spend three nights in Paris. Although they had booked their Novotel Paris Porte de Versailles hotel room online, an attendant informed the family, after seeing their Israeli passports, that the price of the room had increased.
“He completely changed face,” the father said in a complaint to French authorities, according to the publication.
Novotel’s Porte de Versailles hotel in Paris. An Israeli family was turned away from the hotel after an attendant noticed their Israeli passports. Photo: Accor Group
“When he saw that I had an Israeli passport, he told me that the room would cost 1,219 Euros in the end; he increased the price voluntarily,” the father continued.
The attendant also allegedly hurled antisemitic accusations at the family, including, “Israel, you think you are kings of the world; you will not have a room in this hotel!”
The family was turned away from the hotel at 1:30 am and forced to stay elsewhere. The attendant “treated us with contempt and racism,” the father said.
Accor, the group that manages Novotel, offered the family compensation after their poor treatment.
The incident came amid a spike in antisemitism to record levels across France.
In an especially egregious attack that has garnered international headlines, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb on June 15, according to the French authorities. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.
The three alleged attackers were arrested by French police two days after the rape. Two of them were indicted for gang rape, death threats, antisemitic violence, attempted extortion, and invasion of privacy. The third boy was charged as a witness.
After the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron “denounced the scourge of antisemitism” overtaking French society and spoke of the need to combat hatred of Jews in schools.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference in Paris, France, June 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
The parents of the girl agreed to speak anonymously with the French newspaper Le Parisien in an interview that was published on Monday. They described the attack as a “mimicry” of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israeli girls and women during the Palestinian terrorist group’s onslaught across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The rape in France reportedly occurred after the assailants discovered that the victim was Jewish. “Why did you lie? I know you are not Muslim. So what religion are you?” the boys yelled at her before the attack, according to her parents.
According to the girl’s mother, “before they let her leave, they made her swear by Allah not to tell her parents or police.”
The assault was antisemitic and motivated by the war in Gaza, her parents told Le Parisien. “This incident is a sign of a collective social failure in the fight against antisemitism and extreme violence,” they said.
Jewish children were also targeted in another Paris suburb this past weekend. On Saturday, six Jewish minors were assaulted at a movie theater in the suburb of Levallois-Perret. According to reports, three assailants yelled antisemitic slurs at the minors and “slapped one of them several times,” before the victims fled toward Jerusalem Square in the French capital’s 17th arrondissement, where they filed a police complaint. French police are investigating the incident.
“I condemn the physical attack of antisemitic nature in which several young minors were victims,” Geoffroy Boulard, mayor of the 17th arrondissement, wrote on X/Twitter in response to the assault.
The recent antisemitic attacks came amid a record surge of antisemitism in France in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Antisemitic incidents rose by over 1,000 percent in the final three months of 2023 compared with the previous year, with over 1,200 incidents reported — greater than the total number of incidents in France for the previous three years combined.
The post Paris Hotel Refuses to Serve Israeli Family as Antisemitism Continues to Spiral in France first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Harris, Trump Are in Tight Race in Michigan and Wisconsin, NYT/Siena College Opinion Poll Shows
Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris waves from the stage on Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, US, Aug. 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Wurm
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump are in a tight race in the key states of Michigan and Wisconsin, according to an opinion poll by the New York Times and Siena College released on Saturday.
The NYT/Siena College poll found that Harris received 48% support among likely voters in Michigan with Trump garnering 47%, while in Wisconsin Harris holds 49% support to Trump’s 47%.
The surveys were conducted by telephone between Sept. 21 to 26, where interviewers spoke with 688 likely voters in Michigan and 680 likely voters in Wisconsin.
The margin for sampling error among likely voters is about plus or minus four percentage points for each poll.
The polls also found that Harris had a lead of nine percentage points over Trump in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, whose lone electoral vote could be decisive in the Electoral College.
The post Harris, Trump Are in Tight Race in Michigan and Wisconsin, NYT/Siena College Opinion Poll Shows first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Regional Politicians, Others React to Killing of Hezbollah’s Nasrallah
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint statement to the media in Baghdad, Iraq, April 22, 2024. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/Pool via REUTERS
The following are reactions by regional politicians and others to the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday:
IRAN’S FOREIGN MINISTRY
The ministry said in a statement that Nasrallah’s “path will continue and his goal will be realized in Jerusalem’s liberation”.
YEMEN’S IRAN-ALIGNED HOUTHIS
The group said it mourned the killing of Nasrallah, adding: “The martyrdom … will increase the strength of sacrifice … determination and continuity.”
MOHAMMED SHIA AL-SUDANI, IRAQ’S PRIME MINISTER
He said the killing of Nasrallah showed “the reckless desire to expand the conflict at the expense of all the peoples of the region and their security and stability.”
HERZI HALEVI, ISRAEL’S CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF
“Nasrallah indiscriminately murdered Israeli civilians and aimed to end this war with the destruction of the State of Israel. We made sure that did not occur. We eliminated him, and we will continue to grow stronger. Hezbollah has murdered innocent people worldwide, hiding his weapons under the homes of families, women and children and turning them into human shields. As we have shown, we will not allow such a threat to our citizens. We are determined to continue destroying the Hezbollah terrorist organization and to keep fighting.”
MOQTADA EL SADR, IRAQI SHI’ITE MUSLIM POLITICIAN
He said he mourned Nasrallah as “his companion in resistance”.
GEBRAN BASSIL, LEADING LEBANESE CHRISTIAN POLITICIAN
He said he mourned the death of Nasrallah as a major loss and said it was a hard time for all Lebanese, adding: “In the face of the Israeli enemy, we have no choice but to be together as Lebanese.”
MICHEL AOUN, FORMER LEBANESE PRESIDENT
In a statement mourning Nasrallah, he referred to “the dangers our country is witnessing as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression which requires rising to the highest level of national solidarity that protects and fortifies our unity because that is the true salvation”.
SAAD AL-HARIRI, FORMER LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER
“The assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has plunged Lebanon and the region into a new phase of violence. It is a cowardly act condemned in its entirety by us, who paid dearly for the lives of our loved ones when assassination became an alternative to politics. May God have mercy on Sayyed Hassan and my sincere condolences to his family and comrades. We often disagreed with the deceased and his party and met a few times, but Lebanon was everyone’s tent. In this extremely difficult phase, our unity and solidarity remain the foundation.”
TURKISH PRESIDENT TAYYIP ERDOGAN
In a post on X after the killing of Nasrallah but which did not name him, Erdogan said he condemned recent attacks in Lebanon as part of what he called an Israeli policy of “genocide, occupation, and invasion” and said the Muslim world should show a more “determined” stance.
The post Regional Politicians, Others React to Killing of Hezbollah’s Nasrallah first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Khamenei: ‘Zionist Criminals Too Weak to Succeed Again the Resistance’
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with a group of students in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 2, 2022. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Responding on Saturday to the assassination by Israel of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has delivered familiar staples of Islamist rhetoric.
“The killing of defenseless civilians in Lebanon,” he said, “has once again revealed the savage nature of the rabid Zionists to everyone. On the other hand, it has proven how shortsighted and insane the policies of the leaders of the occupying regime are.”
The cleric inveighed against “the terrorist gang ruling the Zionist regime” that “hasn’t learned from its yearlong criminal war in Gaza & doesn’t understand the massacre of women, children and civilians cannot hurt the strong structure of Resistance or bring it to its knees. Now they’re testing the same absurd policy in Lebanon.”
“The Zionist criminals need to know that they are far too weak to be able to inflict any significant damage on the solid structure of Lebanon’s Hezbollah. All the Resistance forces in the region stand with and support Hezbollah. The Resistance forces will determine the fate of this region with the honorable Hezbollah leading the way.”
The post Iran’s Khamenei: ‘Zionist Criminals Too Weak to Succeed Again the Resistance’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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