Toulouse Jewish School and Gay Center Hit by Swastika Vandals

Threat: Toulouse Mayor Pierre Cohen denounced the latest hate attacks. Image by getty images

By JTA February 18, 2014

Swastikas and other hate graffiti were painted on buildings throughout the French city of Toulouse.

Sunday night’s vandalism, which also included far-right symbols, struck an LBGT center, a university and cemetery, and the offices of left-wing candidates in elections next month, according to Radio France International. Police have not identified any suspects.

The graffiti attacked Jewish groups and compared Jews to homosexuals, RFI reported.

“Those hateful messages are a real danger for our republic,” Toulouse Mayor Pierre Cohen of the Socialist Party said in a statement. “It is our responsibility not to let this noxious atmosphere reminiscent of the inglorious past become established.”

The Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse was the site two years ago where a radical Islamist killed four people, including three children.

Also Sunday, some 20 supporters of the French comedian Dieudonne M’laba M’laba held a “quenelle party” on the southwest French city’s main square, police told RFI. The quenelle, a gesture reminiscent of a Nazi salute that was created by Dieudonne, has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic.

Last month, French police arrested a man who posted a photo on social networks that showed a young man wearing sunglasses performing the quenelle while standing in front of the entrance to the Ozar Hatorah School wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the portrait of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

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