Free Republic

(AFP) Dozens more graves have been vandalised at French cemeteries, the interior ministry said Wednesday, as prosecutors said that the desecration of hundreds of Jewish graves over the weekend in Sarre-Union had a clear “anti-Semitic motive”. The interior ministry said crucifixes were overturned and gravesites disturbed in Tracy-sur-Mer, a tiny town next to the D-Day landing beaches, as well as in Saint-Beat in southwest France in the latest vandalism. Swastikas were found in two other towns, the ministry said. The discoveries came as five teens faced preliminary charges for desecrating hundreds of graves at a Jewish cemetery in the eastern...

Saverne (France) (AFP) - French prosecutors said Monday they had taken five teenagers into custody suspected of vandalising hundreds of Jewish graves, an act that prompted fresh pleas for Jews not to turn their back on France. The boys are aged between 15 and 17 and all come from Sarre-Union in Alsace, eastern France, where around 300 tombs were defaced and damaged on Thursday. The youngest came forward after seeing the scale of the reaction across the country to the vandalism, prosecutor Philippe Vannier said. "Apparently, he was very, very affected by the scale of the reaction to this affair,...

PARIS—French police detained five teenage boys for questioning in relation to the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in the eastern part of the country, an incident that has raised anxiety among French Jews about their security. Philippe Vannier, a French state prosecutor in Saverne in the Alsace region, told a news conference on Monday that one teen had turned himself in, which then led the police to four others who are suspected of knocking over and vandalizing about 250 out of the 400 tombstones at the cemetery. Mr. Vannier said the five youths “had no known ideological views that could...

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday slammed the attacks in Denmark by Islamist terrorist Omar Abdel Hamid Hussein on Saturday, in which two people were murdered, as being an act of "Islamo-fascism." Responding to the attacks in Copenhagen and the attacks on Paris last month, Valls said "to combat Islamo-fascism, for that is what it should be called, our strength must come from unity," reports AFP. Valls also responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's call for European Jews to come home to Israel in the face of widespread anti-Semitism and violence on the continent, noting Netanyahu is "in the...

Five adolescents aged 15 to 17 have been taken into custody in eastern France for questioning over a massive vandalism attack against Jewish graves, a local prosecutor said on Monday. All five are from the region of Sarre-Union in Alsace, where around 300 tombs were defaced over the weekend. The youngest came forward after being shocked by the massive reaction across the country to the vandalism, prosecutor Philippe Vannier said. "Apparently, he was very very affected by the scale of the reaction to this affair, including the statements from the highest state authorities," Vannier told reporters. The boy, who was...

France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve described act in Sarre-Union as “despicable” France’s interior minister said several hundreds of tombs had been defaced at a Jewish cemetery in the east of the country, in what he called “a despicable act”. “The country will not tolerate this new injury which goes against the values that all French people share,” said Bernard Cazeneuve, without giving further details of the incident in the town of Sarre-Union. “Every effort will be made to identify, question and bring to justice the person or persons responsible for this ignominious act,” he added. France’s prime minister Manuel Valls,...

Feb. 15, 2015 Hundreds Of Jewish Tombs Damaged In Northern France Hundreds of graves have been vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, in what the president called an "odious and barbaric" anti-Semitic act against French values. The vandalism comes at a time of growing insecurity among French Jews and amid general religious tensions in Europe, after Islamic radicals attacked a kosher market and a satirical newspaper in Paris last month and similar attacks hit Denmark this weekend. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement Sunday that a criminal investigation team is at the damaged cemetery in...