A month after the Islamist attacks in Paris, around 300 graves were desecrated in the Jewish cemetery of Sarre-Union, in the Lower Rhine. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced this, having just returned from Copenhagen where he paid tribute to the victims of the double attack on Saturday , condemning this “odious act” with “maximum firmness”. “The Republic will not tolerate this new wound that affects the values shared by all the French,” he said. Then add: “Every effort will be made to identify the person or persons responsible and bring them to justice”.

And the French police have arrested five teenagers, accused of having desecrated Jewish tombs. The Saverne Procurator announced it.
In a statement released by the Elysee, we read that “the president of the Republic condemns the profanation with the strongest firmness” and that “everything will be done to identify and punish those responsible for this hateful and barbarous act”. “France – the note concludes – is determined to fight relentlessly against anti-Semitism and against those who want to undermine the values of the Republic”. The declaration of Prime Minister Manuel Valls is of the same tenor.

Already in 1988, about sixty stems from the Jewish cemetery in Sarre-Union had been torn down and in 2001 another 54 graves had been damaged. Since last month the French authorities have reinforced security around the synagogues. In 2014, episodes of anti-Semitism doubled compared to the previous year, with a significant increase in acts of violence.