Three Jewish students brutally assaulted at the University of Strasbourg by pro-Hamas mob.
By Ben Cohen, Algemeiner
Police in France have yet to make an arrest in the case of three Jewish men who were brutally assaulted by a pro-Hamas mob on the campus of the University of Strasbourg last Sunday night while they put up posters calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The three men, two of whom are students, were set upon by a group of six people who threw kicks and punches while shouting “Zionist fascists,” according to a statement released on Friday by the university’s president Michel Deneken.
Deneken said that he “strongly condemned” the assault, pointing out that while the attack took place on Sunday, he was only informed of it on Thursday.
One of the victims was “hit and thrown to the ground,” Deneken said.
“It’s very serious,” he added. “This is violence that we have never known here.”
A spokesperson for the Strasbourg police confirmed that the assault had taken place, but that none of the victims were hospitalized as a result. “No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing,” the spokesperson told the AFP news agency.
The attack was also condemned by the Mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian. In a post on the X/Twitter social media platform, Barseghian said that she extended her support to the victims.
“The police must now investigate so that the necessary action can be taken,” she added.
A separate statement from the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) noted that the three victims had been putting up posters highlighting the plight of the hostages captured by Hamas terrorists during their Oct. 7, 2023 pogrom in southern Israel. They were spotted by an “anti-Zionist activist” who verbally abused them. She then left the scene, only to return with five other Hamas supporters who beat and insulted the three victims, leaving one of them with “severe bruising.”
Samuel Lejoyeux, the president of the UEJF, urged that the attack “not go unpunished.”
“It must also serve as a widespread warning: the demonization of Israel fed by far-left groups in universities leads to antisemitic violence. It is urgent to stop tolerating it,” he added.
In a report last Wednesday, the Jewish umbrella organization Crif disclosed that 1676 antisemitic incidents had been recorded in France in 2023 — four times the number registered during the previous year and an unprecedented record,
While in past years the majority of the incidents involved vandalism of property, last year 58 percent of the incidents recorded were directed against people, with 13 percent occurring in schools.
The Oct. 7 atrocities had “acted like a catalyst for hatred by activating latent antisemitism,” Crif president Yonathan Arfi told the AFP news agency.