An investigation was opened this Monday, January 6 after the discovery of Stars of David on buildings in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne), not far from the place which was targeted during the attacks of January 2015.
Several Star of David tags were found on Sunday January 5 on buildings in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne), not far from the Hypercacher which had been targeted by Amedy Coulibaly during the wave of attacks in January 2015. Contacted by Liberationthe Créteil public prosecutor's office declared this Monday, January 6 that an investigation was opened to “degradation or deterioration of the property of another committed because of race, ethnicity, nation or religion”. She was handed over to the Vincennes police station.
The public prosecutor specifies that the discovery was made at the end of the day by a resident, who noticed the presence of two stars of David tagged on the front door of a building and in its hall. A third star was also discovered at another address a little later. Contacted this Monday, the Vincennes town hall counted a total of thirteen tags distributed in the same sector, “the western part of the city”.
In a press release, Mayor Charlotte Libert condemned “with the greatest firmness these odious acts of provocation, committed on the eve of this week of commemoration of the attacks of January 2015, and in particular that of the Hypercacher of the Porte de Vincennes». The councilor expresses his “full solidarity to the victims of these inscriptions and to the entire Jewish community” of Vincennes and Saint-Mandé: “Nothing – no words, no provocation, no anti-Semitic act can distract us from the memory and respect that we owe to the innocent victims of these despicable murderous attacks and to their families”.
Indeed, other stars of David have been graffitied in several streets in the north of this town bordering Vincennes, we learned Liberation this Monday. A source close to the matter counted in the afternoon “around thirty” of tags distributed between the two cities. According to our colleagues at AFP, an inscription “Jewish” was also found on a building in Saint-Mandé. In a press release consulted by Liberation, the mayor of Saint-Mandé Julien Weil deplored “a desecration” in these acts, “which constitute an insult to our common history, our values and human dignity”. The councilor also expressed his “full support to all the victims of these abject inscriptions and […] to all Jewish communities” of the two affected municipalities.
According to the Créteil public prosecutor's office, other graffiti representing stars of David were noted on Sunday evening in Fontenay-sous-Bois. An investigation was also opened for “degradation or deterioration of the property of others committed because of race, ethnicity, nation or religion” and four people were arrested and placed in police custody. The investigation was entrusted to the Fontenay-sous-Bois police station. The investigations must in particular determine whether the two cases are linked.
The precedent of a Russian interference operation
Dozens of anti-Semitic tags representing blue Stars of David, stencilled, had already been discovered in the fall of 2023 on building facades in Paris and the suburbs. They were the work of the Russian security services (FSB). In this regard, a Moldovan couple was arrested and the alleged sponsor, a pro-Russian Moldovan businessman, identified. In November, France condemned a “Russian digital interference” by denouncing the role of a Russian network in “the artificial amplification and first-time dissemination on social networks of photos of tags representing Stars of David”.
In May, the Holocaust memorial was defaced. No fewer than 35 tags representing red hands had been painted on the Wall of the Righteous, outside the Paris museum, bearing the names of the 3,900 men and women who helped save Jews during the Second World War. Arrested at the end of July, a Bulgarian national denied everything “racism”, saying he acted under the influence of drunkenness, without knowing this building.
Updated Monday January 6addition of precedents, declarations from the town hall of Vincennes, the discovery of the tags in Saint-Mandé and the reaction of the mayor of the town.
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