French Jewish cemetery nearby defaced with antisemitic graffiti

Several tombstones were defaced with antisemitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery near the city of Strasbourg in eastern France.

The incident was discovered on Tuesday in Herrlisheim, a northern suburb, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), an umbrella of French Jewish communities said. The unidentified perpetrators wrote “CRIF = ZOG” and the digits 88 on the tombstones. ZOG stands for “Zionist occupation government.” The number is code for Adolf Hitler.

The incident in Herrlisheim is the fourth time in two months that graffiti featuring far Right antisemitic rhetoric is discovered in sites linked to Jews in the eastern Alsace region. In two separate incidents, Jewish mayors were the target of the graffiti.

Also on Tuesday, Strasbourg saw one of its main avenues renamed for Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and former minister who died last year.

Later on Tuesday, three people were killed and 12 injured at a Christmas market in Strasbourg in a shooting attack by a Muslim radical, police said. The suspect, they said, may have fled to Germany.

Separately, the Paris 13 University initiated disciplinary action against eight students in connection with complaints in October about antisemitic bullying against a female student.

The complainant, a medical student identified in the French media only as Rose, said her classmates made Holocaust jokes about her and ranked her and other Jews according to their level of affiliation to Judaism. The alleged abuse happened online and face to face, she said.

The students being investigated may be expelled, according to a report Monday in Le Parisien. ( JTA)