French PM: Paris rape ‘vile’ proof of rising anti-Semitism

French Prime Minister Manuel Vals said that the suspected rape and robbery of a young Jewish woman near Paris on Monday underlined the need to combat anti-Semitism.

Vals made the statement Thursday on Twitter in reaction to a break-in and rape in the Paris suburb of Creteil, which prosecutors said was carried out by three men who selected their victims because they were sure they had money since they are Jewish.

“The horror in Creteil is a vile demonstration of how the fight against anti-Semitism is a daily battle. I relay my support for the family,” Vals wrote.

French President Francois Hollande denounced the “unbearable” attack on Thursday, calling it “a form of violence all the more unbearable because it aims to divide.”

Police have in custody three men they suspect of committing the armed break-in, during which one suspect allegedly raped a 19-year-old Jewish woman while another guarded her 21-year-old boyfriend inside the house. A third culprit went out to withdraw the couple’s money from a cash machine while the other two stayed behind.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed the anti-Semitic motivations behind the attack in a statement released Wednesday, saying that the initial investigation indicated that the assailants chose their targets “based on the idea that being Jewish means having money.”

Shimon Samuels, director for international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, commended Cazeneuve’s “acknowledgement of [the crime as being] ‘anti-Semitic’ and the police’s rapid arrests.”

The male victim, identified by Le Monde only as Jonathan, told the BFM television network that the attackers interrogated him about the family’s revenues from a clothes shop which the kidnappers thought the family owned. In reality, he, a younger brother, was only a salesman.

In the interview, Jonathan said that his interrogators told him they came especially to the house because they believed Jews always have some money.

Two of the suspected assailants were found in possession of some of the couple’s jewelry and were arrested shortly after Monday’s attack, which occurred in the suburb of Creteil.

A third suspect was apprehended by police on Wednesday. One of the assailants reportedly lives a block away from the couple, who made no secret of their Jewishness.

The three suspects in the case, who are known to police, appeared in court on Wednesday and bond was set, Le Monde reported.

The prosecution linked the attack to one on a 70-year-old Jewish man who was badly beaten at his Creteil home on November 10 by three men who had referred to his being Jewish during the attack.

AFP contributed to this report.