The BBC reports the terrible news:
Children are reported to be among at least three people killed in a shooting outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, south-west France.
Witnesses told French media that one adult and two children were among the dead.
They said a man opened fire on people waiting at a school drop-off point and then fled on a scooter.
It comes days after three soldiers were shot dead by a man on a scooter in the same part of France.
…
A French television correspondent at the scene said a man on a black scooter opened fire, killing three people – including two children – and badly wounding several others.
The BBC report notes that there have also been shootings of French soldiers “of ethnic origin” in recent days.
In the United Kingdom, Jewish schools and other community institutions are protected by the police, and enhanced day to day security measures are co-ordinated by the Community Security Trust. Earlier this year, the Coalition Government awarded a grant to pay for security guards at schools. The Guardian suggested that the award was a scandal, because Michael Gove was a member of the Board of Advisors to the CST:
Michael Gove, the education secretary, awarded £2m of public money to an organisation that he promoted as an adviser for four years.
The education secretary personally made the decision to give taxpayers’ money to an organisation that distributes funds to pay for better security at Jewish schools. Gove has promoted the Community Security Trust(CST) as an adviser since 2007.
Documents obtained by the Guardian show that Gove personally wrote to the trust confirming that the education department was awarding the money to it. He issued a public statement saying that he had “secured the funding” to the trust.
The Guardian brought in Professor David Miller of Spinwatch to argue that it was improper that such a grant should have been made:
David Miller, of the Spinwatch pressure group, which campaigns for greater transparency in politics, said: “It is blindingly obvious that he should have stood aside, as this is a potential conflict of interest. This is another example of transparency rules in the UK being ineffectual and in serious need of overhaul.” Miller first drew attention to Gove’s advisory work for the trust.
David Miller runs a series of websites, one of which reproduced the thesis of a notorious neo-Nazi, Kevin MacDonald. MacDonald believes that Jews are genetically predisposed to scheme and conspire against non-Jews. The article was eventually removed, after this was pointed out to them. But, as far as we can tell, nobody was “sacked” from Miller’s project for promoting neo-Nazi antisemitism.
David Miller also produced a quasi-academic report to assist the antisemitic hate preacher, Raed Salah, in his appeal against deportation from Britain, which apparently attacked the CST for its supposedly “unbalanced perspective”. Raed Salah had denied having written a racist poem; denied making a comment alleging that Jews baked the blood on non Jews in their bread; denied the allegation that he was facing any charges in Israel; and denied any links to Hamas. At the Government’s request, the CST provided information to the contrary.
UPDATE
Sarah AB links to a report of an assault on two Jewish teenagers following a sports lesson, last week:
[autotranslation]: France: two young Jews brutally attacked in Porte de Bagnolet
Two Jewish teenagers age 16 were violently assaulted in the output of a sports lesson on March 12, around 18h, leaving the stadium at Porte de Bagnolet. They were attacked by two men who caused them, then were joined by a group of young people described as of North African origin and African beat them with kicks, punches. They owe their salvation to the arrival of two women, social workers, who saw the scene, stopped their car and pulled them from the clutches of their assailants who fled. One of them recounted in BNVCA violence abusers who have worked hard on one of the young. While he was on shore, they would have stamped on the head, knocking on the asphalt, so that the boy lost consciousness. They were identified as one of them was wearing a yarmulke.
UPDATE 2
This is Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, זק״ל. The boys’ mother was not killed.
UPDATE 3
This is Corporal Abel Chennouf, slaughtered at 24. He will never know his child.
“In 2008, a scandal erupted over the 17th Airborne Combat Engineering Regiment when photos appeared of three paratroopers making Hitler salutes and posing with a Nazi flag.
Two soldiers were thrown out of the army as a result while the third had already resigned, the regional newspaper La Depeche reported.
The news magazine Le Point said police believed there might be a link between the shootings and the soldiers dismissed.”
