French official sues Jewish group accused of calling for killing Arabs after Sarona attack
Published June 10, 2016
(JTA) — A French official responsible for fighting anti-Semitism vowed legal action against a Jewish group suspected of calling for killing Arabs on Twitter, and against a pro-Palestinian activist who allegedly celebrated the murder of four Jews in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.
The official Twitter account of the France branch of Betar, a right-wing youth movement, on June 8 featured a transliteration of Hebrew words that mean “death to the Arabs,” preceded by the statement: “In the Arab villages of Gaza and Hebron, the ‘Palestinian’ Nazi-Islamists celebrate the killers of Jews this evening with fireworks.”
Gilles Clavreul, France’s inter-ministerial delegate for the fight against anti-Semitism, said on Twitter: “A call to murder Arabs by Betar France. Unjustifiable. I have referred to the prosecutor’s office.”
Clavreul also said he will pursue legal action against a Twitter user from France who congratulated the terrorists who gunned down four people in Tel Aviv Wednesday, Le Figaro daily reported.
A picture of the two terrorists, Mohammad Ahmad Mahamra and Khaled Mahamra, appeared shortly after the shootings on the Twitter account of Aya Ramadan, a member of the far-left PIR party. Israeli authorities said the Mahamras, two cousins, carried out a terrorist attack at a café in the Sarona compound. “Dignity and pride! Bravo to the two Palestinians who carried out an operation fo resistance in Tel Aviv,” read the text attached to the picture.
The picture was later removed from her Twitter feed but Clavreul wrote on Twitter that “legal action will obviously be taken” against what he said was Ramadan’s “clear celebration of a terrorist act.” He added he had flagged her account to Twitter, asking for its suspension.
Separately, French police are investigating the spraying of swastikas on a synagogue and the words “White power” on an adjacent building in the northeastern city of Verdun. A police patrol found the graffiti on Monday, the news site 20minutes reported.
In another incident, a soldier guarding a synagogue was lightly wounded Tuesday in Sarcelles, a heavily-Jewish suburb of Paris, by a brick that was hurled at the passenger window of the parked police car where he was sitting, the Metro daily reported.
