Looting in Marseille: Crif and the prefecture deny targeting of Jewish businesses

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of Marseille-Provence and the Bouches-du-Rhône delegated police headquarters on Tuesday denied a rumor circulating on social networks according to which looters and thugs targeted Jewish businesses in the city on the weekend of October 17.

“The businesses were looted without religious distinction,” the Bouches-du-Rhône delegated police headquarters told AFP, without further comment. “What I know is that there are Muslim businesses that have been broken, looted, devastated, Jewish businesses, Christian businesses, businesses from, ultimately, all the components of the Nation,” underlined Bruno Benjamin, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions (Crif) Marseille-Provence.

“All the businesses were broken, there was no particularity, except perhaps exceptional or particular cases where, perhaps in certain streets, the thugs knew the merchants and avoided breaking their businesses,” he insisted. “Now, to say that it is Muslim businesses that have not been broken (systematically, also a widespread rumor, Editor’s note), I really have no evidence to support that,” he added.

“In Marseille, during the demonstrations of October 17, several businesses were damaged, INCLUDING some run by people of the Jewish faith. There is no evidence at this stage to establish targeting linked to the faith of their operators,” the Jewish Community Protection Service (SPCJ) underlined in a press release released on Sunday, calling for “caution and responsibility” and “not to relay unverified information.”

Evoking “a degree of preparation which raises questions” according to him, journalist Paul Amar said on Sunday on Cnews that the looters and thugs “had the addresses (...) of quite a few Jewish traders”. “In a street in Marseille – I will give you some information – all the businesses owned by Jews were set on fire, the businesses run by Muslims were not,” he added, without specifying the name of this street.

Statements which were then relayed tens of thousands of times on social networks, in particular the X network, both in French and in foreign languages.