France did 'no harm' deal in 1982 with Palestinian terrorists who killed Jews

Secret service made agreement after Paris massacre in which six people were murdered and 22 injured at a kosher restaurant, in exchange for halt to attacks on French soil

JTA — France agreed not to target Palestinian terrorists who killed French Jews in Paris in 1982 if they refrained from carrying out further attacks on French soil, a former top spy revealed.

Yves Bonnet, who headed the now-defunct DST service in the 1980s, said this in January to a judge investigating the 1982 attack in which six people were murdered and 22 injured at a kosher restaurant on Rosiers Street in Paris, Le Parisien reported Thursday.

Friday marked the 37th anniversary of the attack, then the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on French soil since World War II, in which the terrorists threw grenades into the packed restaurant.

The suspects in the attack on the Jo Goldbenberg deli are wanted for questioning as per a 2015 French arrest warrant. One of the suspects lives in Jordan, another near Ramallah in the West Bank and a third in Norway, according to the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities.

None of the relevant governments have agreed to extradite the suspects, whom French investigators believe belonged to the Abu Nidal terrorist group affiliated with Fatah.

“We entered a sort of verbal deal which tells them: I want no more attacks on French soil, but I will allow you to come to France and guarantee nothing will happen to you,” Bonnet said

Firefighters and nurses tending to a casualty behind the bar at Jewish restaurant and deli, Jo Goldenberg, located on Rue des Rosiers in Paris, France, after the anti-Semitic terror attack by armed men in the restaurant on Aug. 9, 1982. The attack left six dead and many injured. (AP Photo/ Aulnay)

French authorities allowed two of the alleged perpetrators to visit their brothers in arms in French prisons after the 1982 attack.

“It worked, there were no further attacks from the end of 1983, throughout 1984 and until 1985,” Bonnet said.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report