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Published on 17 January 2016
Supporter of ISIS faces terror charges over Marseille Jewish teacher attack
Published in the Guardian January 13, 2016
The teenage attacker struck at 9am on Monday, attacking Benjamin Amsellem , a 35-year-old teacher at a Jewish school in the southern port city of Marseille who was walking to work wearing traditional dress and a kippa.
The suspect repeatedly slashed Amsellem with a machete, wounding him in the back and hand. Amsellem fell to the ground and protected himself with the Torah he was carrying. He later told the local paper La Provence that he had seen hatred in his attacker’s eyes. “I told him to stop hitting me but he carried on and I didn’t think I’d get out of it alive.”
The attacker, who comes from an ethnic Kurdish family who arrived in France from Turkey five years ago, told investigators he was proud of the attack and felt ashamed that he had not managed to kill the teacher.
Brice Robin , the Marseille state prosecutor, said the suspect told police he had acted “in the name of Allah and Islamic State”. He also said he wanted to attack police and get hold of firearms. Another source close to the investigation told local media that the teenager had said: “I don’t represent Daesh [Isis], they represent me.”
Prosecutors described the teenager as a student with good grades from a normal family background who became radicalised via websites. His family and those around him said they were unaware of his radicalisation. No trace of radical websites was found on his computer, only on his mobile phone. He was not known to intelligence services.
The attack was the third in recent months on Jews in Marseille, the Mediterranean city that is home to the second largest Jewish population in France after Paris.
In October a knife-wielding, drunk assailant attacked three Jews near a synagogue in the city. In November, another Jewish teacher was stabbed by people shouting antisemitic slogans and support for Isis... Read more.