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Stars of David spray-painted on Paris buildings remind Jews of 1930s, mayor says
(JTA) — Police are investigating dozens of Stars of David found spray-painted on the walls of buildings in Paris’ 14th arrondissement this week, the latest in a series of incidents tied to the Israel-Hamas war that have had French Jews on high alert since Oct. 7.
Authorities announced the investigation on Tuesday, days after similar graffiti was found in the suburbs of suburbs of Vanves, Fontenay-aux-Roses and Aubervilliers. In the nearby town of Saint-Ouen, some graffiti was accompanied by slogans such as “Palestine will overcome.”
The mayoralty of the city’s 14th arrondissement said in a statement that the Jewish stars “recall the events of the 1930s… which led to the extermination of millions of Jews.”
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told the National Assembly that “my government is determined to wage a merciless fight against” antisemitism. Her father survived Auschwitz but then committed suicide when she was 11. “It is the duty of the republic to protect all the Jews of France,” she added.
Officials said that the Stars of David have yet to be officially tallied as hate crimes.
France has seen more antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 than in the entire past year — more than 850, according to Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister. “Jewish community sites will be protected day and night,” Darmanin said at the Levallois-Perret synagogue on Tuesday evening.
The antisemitic incidents range from verbal abuse and antisemitic graffiti to death threats and physical assaults in the street. Over 400 investigations have been opened into instances of online abuse, Le Figaro reported, and more than 425 people have been arrested so far in connection with antisemitic acts throughout the country. Of those, 125 are of foreign origin. “More than 30 are already in administrative centers awaiting deportation, and deportations of foreigners for acts of antisemitism have already begun,” Darmanin said.
With one of the largest Jewish populations outside of Israel and the United States, at around 500,000 people, France is also home to the largest Muslim community in Europe.
Jacques Isaac Azeroual, a kosher butcher in the city’s 19th district, which has a sizable Jewish community, told AFP that he doesn’t feel secure anymore. Out of fear, he is closing his store an hour early and has started covering his kippah outside.
“People are demoralized. They are scared of going out to shop,” he said.
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The post Stars of David spray-painted on Paris buildings remind Jews of 1930s, mayor says appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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