There was, for the first time, a member of the government. A national tribute was paid Tuesday to the victims of the attack on rue des Rosiers, which was committed in the Jewish quarter of Paris 40 years ago.
For his part, Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “On August 9, 1982, rue des Rosiers in Paris, the Jo Goldenberg restaurant was the target of an anti-Semitic attack. 6 people died there. 22 are injured. 40 years later, we do not forget”.
“The nightmare began on this fatal day and never leaves me”, testified during the ceremony Guy Ariel Benarousse, victim of the attack. “A national tribute is good and you see me delighted. But it is time for my country France, and its government, to take its responsibilities, so that all those who participated in this heinous attack can appear before a judge,” he said.
“The same questions remain”
A total of six people were killed and 22 injured on August 9, 1982 in a grenade explosion in the Jo Goldenberg restaurant and then in a shootout in the historic Jewish quarter of the Marais. The attack has since been attributed to Abu Nidal’s Fatah-Revolutionary Council (Fatah-RC), a Palestinian dissident group from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Very moved, the sister of André Hezkia Niego, victim of the attack, recounted the “deep pain” of her daily life since the loss of her big brother. “The same questions remain: why this anti-Semitic act? Who are the terrorists? So many questions without real answers, ”lamented Jacqueline Niego.
Present during the tribute, the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti acknowledged that “the thirst for justice felt by the victims has not been quenched”. “I know that our justice, in connection with our diplomats, is extremely mobilized so that all the light is shed on this cowardly attack”, specified Dupond-Moretti. “Forty years later, a sad fact is clear: anti-Semitism, that filthy beast, is not dead; it crawls, more or less masked,” he said.
The Minister, as well as elected officials, ambassadors and representatives of Jewish institutions, then gathered in front of the commemorative plaque on rue des Rosiers, laying wreaths of flowers there in turn. They then observed a minute of silence.