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Jewish 'ultras' and anti-Israel mob in street clash

Joshua Melvin
Joshua Melvin - [email protected]
Jewish 'ultras' and anti-Israel mob in street clash
Youths from the Jewish Defense League of France carry chairs and other weapons as they clash with pro-Palestinian protesters. Photo: Screengrab YouTube.

A video has emerged of a violent running street battle that kicked off Sunday in central Paris between a mob of hardline Jewish youths and pro-Palestinian demonstrators who’d attacked a nearby synagogue.

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An eyewitness video captured a violent street battle that erupted on Sunday in Paris between a group of Jewish militants and a group of anti-Israel protesters who’d laid siege to a nearby synagogue.

In the nearly six-minute clip posted on YouTube scores of young men brandishing weapons made from broken furniture are involved in running battles on Rue de la Roquette, in the 11th arrondissement, that leave some bloody and dazed .

The clash occured just steps from the Synagogue Don Isaac Abravanel, which a group of protesters had surrounded and tried to enter before riot police intervened.

The violence continued for a number of minutes before riot police eventually manged to contain the situation, with the help of tear gas.

Here is the video: 

The Jewish Defense League of France (LDJ) took credit for its role in the retaliation writing on Twitter: “Six pro-Hamas hooligans are sleeping in police custody tonight, at least as many are sleeping in the emergency room. We’ll never back down!”

For the Jewish Defense League of France, whose mother organization in the United States has been classified by the FBI as a "violent extremist group", this was just the latest violent confrontation. In operation for over a decade, the zionist, so-called "self-defense" group has been tied hundreds of attacks and has been called a "gang of barbarians" by mainstream Jewish leaders.  

Accordingly the LDJ's street fighting after the synagogue attack on Sunday was a moment of pride for its members: "If 60 unarmed Jews were able to beat 300 armed hooligans it was due to the grace of God. Let's thank him for his miracles!" the group tweeted.

Dozens of the groups supporters agreed with the use of violence in this case, tweeting their thanks to the group. "To the 50 defenders of La Roquette who stood up to hundreds of anti-Semites thirty for Jewish blood...Thank you!"

However the violence has left religious and political leaders on edge over fears the latest clashes between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has left hundreds dead, will have a ripple effect in France.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a false pretext for a surge of hate that exists regularly. But Sunday, with back-to-back attacks on synagogues in Paris, we went to another level,” France's Grand Rabbi Haïm Korsia told French daily Le Parisien. “We narrowly avoided a catastrophe.”

France’s Jewish community has been on edge in the two weeks since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict erupted after the murder of three Jewish teens. Since 2000 anti-Semitic attacks in France have spiked every time the tit-for-tat violence has exploded between Israel and Palestine.

“Today many French Jews are afraid of being subjected to attacks because in France, under the context of defending the Palestinian cause, there are those who go after people of the Jewish faith,” Sacha Reingewirtz, President of the French Jewish Student Union told The Local. “French Jews serve as a stand-in for Israeli targets.”

However for the Jewish Defense League of France, the violence on Sunday was a moment of pride: "If 60 unarmed Jews were able to beat 300 armed hooligans it was due to the grace of God. Let's thank him for his miracles!"

Dozens of the groups supporters agreed with the use of violence in this case, tweeting their thanks to the group. "To the 50 defenders of La Roquette who stood up to hundreds of anti-Semites thirty for Jewish blood...Thank you!"

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