By CAP Liberté de Conscience August 2024
In a disturbing incident on the Paris metro, a man was recorded making vehement anti-Semitic remarks, prompting a police investigation and a complaint from a courageous bystander.
According to a report in Le Parisien, the incident occurred on Thursday morning on the Line 9 metro. A woman filming the scene captured a man repeatedly shouting “Hitler was right, he should have killed all the Juden (Jews in German).”
The woman who filmed the video told Le Parisien, “A religious family was being insulted in front of me, and no one reacted, of course. It’s difficult to stay calm in the face of that.”
Jérémy Benhaïm, an activist against anti-Semitism, shared the video on social media, stating: “A man verbally attacked a religious Jewish family. Given the gravity of the situation, this video had to be shared.”
The Paris police prefecture immediately filed a report with the public prosecutor’s office after becoming aware of the video. “The prefect of police has asked his staff to use all means to find the author of these abject remarks,” the prefecture said in a statement.
The woman who filmed the incident ultimately intervened, warning the man: “You stop, I’m going to file a complaint against you. I’m going to go see the police.”
According to her lawyer, Avner Doukhan, “She wanted to defend these poor people who hadn’t asked for anything. The words came out of her mouth naturally. She is a 24-year-old girl who showed courage at the risk of her physical integrity, even her life. He could have been armed with a knife.”
Doukhan, who also represents the European Jewish Organization, said he had written to the prosecutor’s office to ensure the man is identified and “quickly convicted” for offenses including “apology for crimes against humanity, incitement to hatred on religious grounds, public insults and violence when he spat on my client.”
The Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, assured that his officers would “quickly apprehend this individual” given their “great efficiency.”
This is not the first time anti-Semitic remarks have been made on the Paris metro since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023. In November, eight minors were arrested after a video showed some of them shouting “Fuck the Jews” and “We’re Nazis and proud.”
