General
Algerian Man Charged Over Synagogue Arson Attack in France
The man expressed deep hatred of Jews and said he had acted to “support the Palestinian cause,” according to French antiterrorism prosecutors.
A 33-year-old Algerian man was charged on Wednesday with attempted murder and other crimes after an arson attack on a synagogue in southern France last week, prosecutors said.
Officials said the man had expressed deep hatred of Jews and told investigators that he had acted to “support the Palestinian cause.” But he denied that he had intended to cause harm, France’s national antiterrorism prosecutor’s office said in a statement issued Wednesday.
In the attack early on Saturday morning, several fires were set at the Beth Yaacov synagogue in La Grande Motte, a resort town on the southern coast of France.
Five people who lived on the first floor of the building and were inside at the time, including the synagogue’s rabbi, were unharmed in the attack. A police officer was slightly injured when a gas canister near a burning vehicle exploded.
French authorities have described the attack as an act of antisemitic terrorism.
The man, identified only by the initials E.H.K., was charged with attempted murder — on terrorist grounds and motivated by race or religion — as well as taking part in a terrorist conspiracy, arson and assaulting police officers. He has been placed in pretrial detention, the prosecutor’s office said.
The attack shook France and deepened anxiety among its large Jewish community, which has been targeted by several deadly attacks in past years and has faced a rise in antisemitic acts since the war in Gaza.
