MUSLIMS IN PARIS BEHEAD TEACHER
Six teenagers in court over beheading of French teacher
PARIS (Reuters) - Six teenagers go on trial behind closed doors on Monday, accused of involvement in the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty by a suspected Islamist in 2020 in an attack that struck at the heart of the country's secular values.
The teacher had shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a class on freedom of expression, angering a number of Muslim parents. Muslims believe that any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous.
One of the minors is a 15-year-old girl who allegedly told her parents that Paty had shown caricatures of the prophet in her class. She will be charged with false accusation after it was established that she was not in the class when it happened.
Paty, 47, was killed outside his school in a Paris suburb by an 18-year-old assailant, born in Russia of Chechen origin, who was shot dead by police soon after the attack.
The five other minors to be prosecuted, aged between 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, will be charged with premeditated criminal conspiracy, or ambush.
They are suspected of having pointed out Paty to the murderer or helped monitor his exit from the school.
All six minors were referred to the children's court and could face 2.5 years in prison.
The hearings, due to last until Dec. 8, will be held behind closed doors.
Eight adults are also accused and will appear before a special criminal court.
France is home to Europe's largest Muslim minority and has suffered a wave of attacks by Islamist militants or their sympathisers in past years.
In the wake of Paty's killing, some teachers acknowledged they censored themselves to avoid confrontation with pupils and parents over religion and free speech.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by Giles Elgood)
Tens of Thousands March Against Antisemitism in London Including Ex-PM Boris Johnson
LONDON (AP) – Tens of thousands of people including former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against antisemitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally.
Johnson was joined by U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march to express solidarity with the Jewish community. Organizers billed it as the largest gathering against antisemitism in London for almost a century.
Marchers waved Israeli flags and Union Jacks, and held placards reading “Never Again Is Now” and “Zero Tolerance for Antisemites.”
Sunday´s march was organized amid concerns about rising tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: The anti-semitism march heads down Arundel street on November 26, 2023 in London, England. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has sparked a wave of protests across Europe, and heightened concerns over anti-Semitism among Jewish communities. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: Personalities Eddie Marsan, Rachel Riley and Maureen Lipman lead the anti-semitism march on November 26, 2023 in London, England. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has sparked a wave of protests across Europe, and heightened concerns over anti-Semitism among Jewish communities. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: The anti-semitism march heads down Arundel street on November 26, 2023 in London, England. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has sparked a wave of protests across Europe, and heightened concerns over anti-Semitism among Jewish communities. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
“Anything which is associated with the Jewish religion now feel that they´re under attack and they have to look after themselves, have their own security,” said Malcolm Canning, 75, from London. “I never thought this would get to this stage in this country. And it´s very, very upsetting to see it.”
Police detained Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the former leader of the far-right English Defence League, at the march. Yaxley-Lennon, more widely known by his alias Tommy Robinson, was among crowds of counterprotesters who clashed with police during an Armistice Day march in London earlier this month.
Police said that he refused to leave after he was warned about concerns that his presence would cause “harassment, alarm and distress to others.”
Gideon Falter, the chief executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said that the rally came after weeks of pro-Palestinian protests that had made the capital a “no-go zone for Jews.”
Tommy Robinson is led away by police officers as people take part in a march against antisemitism organised by the volunteer-led charity Campaign Against Antisemitism at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Picture date: Sunday November 26, 2023. (Photo by Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images)
People take part in a march against antisemitism organised by the volunteer-led charity Campaign Against Antisemitism in central London. Picture date: Sunday November 26, 2023. (Photo by Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images)
Protesters holding placards take part in a demonstration in central London, on November 26, 2023, to protest against antisemitism. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
He said that antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have surged since the war began, and condemned what he called “appalling” placards seen at the protests – including ones “showing a Star of David thrown in the bin with a caption that says `please keep the world clean.´”
On Saturday, tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched to demand a permanent cease-fire in the war.
Police said the majority protested peacefully, but 18 people were arrested for offenses including suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
The Stop the War coalition, which organized Saturday’s rally, stressed that those taking part oppose racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.
During the Nov. 11 Armistice Day demonstration in London, pro-Palestinian protesters marched peacefully. But far-right counter-protesters whom police described as soccer “hooligans” clashed with officers trying to prevent them from attacking the march.
Organizers of Sunday’s march said that it was the largest gathering of its kind since 1936, when hundreds of thousands of people blocked a planned march by the British Union of Fascists through a Jewish neighborhood.
RETRANSMITTED CORRECTING NAME FROM TRACEY-ANN OBERMAN to TRACY-ANN OBERMAN (left to right) Chief Rabbi Mirvis, Eddie Marsan, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Rachel Riley, Maureen Lipman (second from right) and Vanessa Feltz (right) take part in a march against antisemitism organised by the volunteer-led charity Campaign Against Antisemitism at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Picture date: Sunday November 26, 2023. (Photo by Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: Tens of thousands gather for the anti-semitism march on November 26, 2023 in London, England. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has sparked a wave of protests across Europe, and heightened concerns over anti-Semitism among Jewish communities. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: The anti-semitism march heads down Arundel street on November 26, 2023 in London, England. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has sparked a wave of protests across Europe, and heightened concerns over anti-Semitism among Jewish communities. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
Third Hostage Group Includes Four-year-Old American Whose Parents Were Murdered by Hamas
The third group of Israeli hostages freed from Gaza on Sunday evening includes a four-year-old child whose parents were murdered by the Palestinian Hamas terrorists who attacked their community on October 7.
According to Israel’s Army Radio, the group of 14 hostages — 13 Israelis, plus one dual Russian-Israeli national — include ten of the 18 hostages taken from Kfar Aza, a community in which Hamas murdered 100 innocent people. Mothers and their children were among those released.
But four-year-old Avigail Idan — who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship — will not be returning with her mother or her father, who were killed.
She is now an orphan. It is not clear if she knows what happened to her parents.
The Times of Israel reports that the full list of hostages released on Sunday includes the following:
- Avigail Idan, 4 (Kfar Aza)
- Hagar Brodetz, 40, and her children Ofri, 10, Yuval, 9, and Oriya, 4 (Kfar Aza)
- Chen Almog Goldstein, 48, and her children Agam, 17, Gal, 11 and Tal, 9 (Kfar Aza)
- Alma Avraham, 84 (Nahal Oz)
- Aviva Siegel, 64 (Kfar Aza)
- Sisters Ela, 8 and Dafna, 15, Elyakim (Nahal Oz)
- Roni Krivoi, 25 (dual Russian-Israeli national, Supernova music festival)
In return, Israel will release 39 Palestinian terror convicts (the 14th hostage release was part of a separate deal with Russia).
According to Israel’s Army Radio, Alma Avraham has been taken straight to the Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva (Beersheba) for immediate medical attention. The others are being taken to Schneider Children’s Hospital. Another hostage, Maya Regev, who was let go earlier in the four-day “pause” was also taken to Soroka and will require several surgeries but is expected to recover.
Israel is also required, under the deal, to provide additional humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed on Sunday that Hamas was preventing aid trucks from reaching the Northern Gaza Strip, possibly as part of a propaganda exercise.
Idan’s release marks the first American set free since a mother and daughter from Evanston, IL, were released in October. One of the other hostages released Sunday is also a dual American-Israeli citizen.
U.S. President Joe Biden noted Sunday that Avigail had been taken hostage as a three-year-old and had turned four in captivity.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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