Three members of a French Jewish family were kidnapped, tied up, brutally beaten and robbed on Thursday night in their home in the suburb of Livry-Gargan northeast of Paris, French authorities said Sunday.
Prosecutors indicated that a robbery investigation in the case would expand to look into an alleged racist motive, as well as kidnapping and extortion.
According to the National Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), three individuals broke into the house by cutting through the home’s window bars while three members of the family were inside.
They then cut off the electricity in the house, tied up the son, and held and beat the mother and father, before fleeing. It was only on Friday morning, several hours later, that the mother managed to contact police.
According to the BNVCA report, the unidentified attackers told their victims, “You are Jewish, you have money.”
The assailants, all said to be in their twenties, took jewelry, cash and credit cards.
The BNVCA called the attack “manifestly anti-Semitic” and “premeditated,” and said the family was “threatened with death” and “violently beaten.”
In a statement on Sunday, CRIF, the umbrella body of French Jewish organizations, said it “powerfully condemns the very violent and anti-Semitic aggression.”
“This odious act is proof, if we needed any, that the Jews of France are especially threatened in the street, and even more disturbingly, within their very homes,” CRIF President Francis Kalifat said.
“After the atrocious murder of Sarah Halimi in her home, this new attack must bring the authorities in our country to a heightened vigilance and deterrence-inducing steps,” he added.
Halimi, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jew, was killed by her Muslim neighbor in April in Paris. Prosecutors dropped the anti-Semitic accusation from his indictment, drawing fierce condemnation from the Jewish community.
The Union of Jewish Students of France also condemned Thursday’s attack, lamenting “the insecurity of French Jews.”
Israel’s ambassador to France, Aliza Bin Noun, offered her “support to the Jewish family in Livry-Gargan” and “strongly condemn[ed] this anti-Semitic attack” in a Sunday tweet.
