Monday, March 19, 2012

Massacre at a Jewish School in Toulouse

A gunman opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France today, killing at least four people, three of them children. The scene at the school was described by witnesses as horrific.

Toulouse is also the city where two French Muslim paratroopers were killed by a gunman last week, and there are rumors that police think the same gun was used in each incident.

Below is a news report about the massacre from French television. Many thanks to Bear for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


Here’s an article about the incident from The Telegraph:

France: Four Dead as Gunman on a Motorbike Opens Fire at Jewish School in France

A man on a motorbike has opened fire outside a Jewish school in France, killing a father and his two sons and at least one other child, a Toulouse prosecutor has said.

Prosecutor Michel Valet said the teacher, aged 30, was shot dead along with his sons aged just three and six. He said another child aged between eight and 10 years old was also killed, while a 17-year-old was seriously injured. Mr Valet described a chilling scene in which the gunman “shot at everything”. One parent described the incident as “a vision of horror”. The shooting comes just days after two other incidents in which soldiers were gunned down by a man on a motorbike in the same region. Police stated there a similar calbre of gun was used in all three shootings, AFP reported, while Interior Minister Claude Gueant said on Monday there are “similarities” between the attacks. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called Monday’s shooting “abominable” and “frightening”, quickly cautioned that it was too early to draw links between the attacks. “There are some similarities but it’s much too early to say if there is a real link or not. Only the police and the judiciary will tell us what conclusions to draw,” Mr Sarkozy told French radio.

Monday’s attack occurred as students were arriving for morning classes at the Ozar Hatorah school. The gunman opened fire at the spot were parents were dropping their children off. The city is now said to be in lockdown as police hunt the gunman. Some two hours after the attack, the children were still in the school. It was not clear if their parents were with them. Mr Gueant has ordered security to be tightened around all French Jewish schools after the attack. Mr Sarkozy said he is travelling immediately to the school, along with his education minister and the head of the CRIF, the umbrella representative group of Jewish organisations in France. François Hollande, Mr Sarkozy’s presidential rival, has also said he is on his way to the school. Mr Sarkozy called the shootings an “abominable drama and a “frightening tragedy”. Patrick Rouimi, the father of a child at the school, told AFP that a man opened fire on a group of people standing at a spot where children were picked up for the school. “I saw two people dead in front of the school, an adult and a child ... Inside, it was a vision of horror, the bodies of two small children,” a distraught father whose child attends the school told RTL radio. “I did not find my son, apparently he fled when he saw what happened. How can they attack something as sacred as a school, attack children only sixty centimetres tall?”

The shooting occurred at about 8.10am, just ahead of the start of classes in most French schools. The gunman initially used a 9-mm weapon but it jammed, so he switched to a .45-calibre weapon as he went into the Toulouse school, police said. The gunman, wearing a helmet, fled the scene on a black scooter, witnesses told BFM. A correspondent for the news channel said people in the area were in “immense shock”. Freelance journliast Christopher Bockman told the BBC that Toulouse was in lockdown as police hunted the gunman. The Israeli foreign ministry has stated it is “horrified” at the news of the attack. “We are horrified by this attack and we trust the French authorities to shed full light on this tragedy and bring the perpetrators of these murders to justice,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP. France’s Grand Rabbi Gilles Bernheim has also expressed shock at the attack. “I am horrifed by what happened this morning in Toulouse in front of the Jewish school,” he told AFP, adding that he would leave immediately for the southwestern French city.

France has Europe’s largest Jewish community, estimated at up to 700,000 people. The head of the Jewish students union of France (UEJF), Jonathan Hayoun, called on the authorities “to reinforce security at Jewish schools and synagogues.” He also said in a statement that “anti-Semitic and racist speech has created a climate of insecurity for Jews in France”. Police in the area launched a major manhunt last week after the killing of three paratroopers and the wounding of another in two separate, but connected incidents. The perpetrator of both attacks fled on a motorbike. “One can’t fail to notice the similarities between the attacks on our troops in Toulouse and in Montauban and then this horrible attack on children this morning,” Mr Gueant said on Monday.

However a police official warned Monday that it was too early to draw solid links between the attacks “We’re in a heated atmosphere. It’s premature for this or that hypothesis to try to establish a direct link,” Didier Martinez, regional secretary of the SGP Police union, said on BFM-TV. Witnesses described how the killer had time to turn over one of the wounded men who was trying to crawl away and fire three more shots into him before getting back on his scooter and making his escape. Between 50 and 60 police officers, including anti-terrorist specialists, have been drafted in to the investigation. Senior military officials have ordered troops based in the region not to wear their uniforms outside barracks. Mr Bockman told the BBC that the soldiers who were targeted were of ethnic origin. He said it appeared the gunman was deliberately targeting ethnic minorities in the area.


Hat tip for the article: JP.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

AMISH HIT!!!

you just can't trust them Amish!

Anonymous said...

Musings on the recent tragic murders in France:

"How can 'they' attack something as sacred as a school, attack children only sixty centimetres tall?"

Well now, that's an assumption that a 'they' attacked instead of a 'we.' What would be the basis of that assumption? What would be the insinuation of that assumption?

Let's please all CLEARLY define 'they' before 'they' murder more of 'we.'

P.S. Hitler's original plan was to RANSOM captured Jewish children - until the Muslim Grand Mufti got a hold of him and convinced him to murder the Jewish children because 'little Jews grow into big Jews.' (Source: Historical research from Atlas Shrugs blog by Pamela Geller)

"Senior military officials have ordered troops based in the region not to wear their uniforms outside barracks."

So, Muslim women may wear their uniform of burqas as conquerors from the East, but French troops may NOT wear their uniforms as defenders of the West.

Again, the wrong people are afraid of the wrong things. This dynamic MUST change or 'they' will murder a lot more of 'we' before this is all over.

"Mr. Bockman told the BBC that the soldiers who were targeted were of ethnic origin. He said it appeared the gunman was deliberately targeting ethnic minorities in the area."

Due to the Orwellian nature of modern PC MC language, 'we' are suitably confused as to what the word 'ethnic' means here! Does the word 'ethnic' mean native French or foreign French?

The definition of 'ethnic' frames the narrative of the murdered soldiers: Are 'they' conquering the natives or punishing 'their' moderates for helping the West? Hmmm.

Egghead

Dymphna said...

One of my favorite bloggers, Outlaw Mike at Downeast Blog doesn't appear here very often. He showed up this afternoon & I was delighted...until I got to the large, emphasized and verboten Anglosaxon epithet near the end. Sadly I had to delete it - as most of you know we have homeschoolers who read GoV.

However, gvien my long-standing admiration for Mike (and also given that my energy level ia sufficient at the moment) I'm willing to repost his sentiments minus that verboten bit of Anglosaxon indignation:

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the transcript, but Catherine Ashton managed to compare the Toulouse murders to Gaza, Syria, and the deadly bus incident involging Belgian children in Switzerland.

She also hailed Palestinian children who have the courage to keep on studying. Talk about [redacted] a bunch of hooey!.

Talk like that is so very much depressing. Are people like Ashton trying to be deliberately stupid?


-- Outlaw Mike/Belgium

Good question, Mike...

Anonymous said...

"So, Muslim women may wear their uniform of burqas as conquerors from the East, but French troops may NOT wear their uniforms as defenders of the West."

- Excellent point!

Anonymous said...

This looks like neo-nazi style
attacks so Marine Le Pen will not be pleased with the timing.

Sol Ta Triane said...

Nice job Egghead. penetrating insights, ("we" and "they", Orwellian speech, wrong people afraid of the wrong thing) are worthy of serious consideration.

I think it might be nice as a regular post. Especially since it addresses blind spots that the CJ movement doesn't directly address as of yet.

Anonymous said...

Given the way the MSM is trying to avoid mentioning Muslims and that the targets are your classic ones for Muslims(Jews and Muslims who are seen betraying their faith), it's no surprise they'd bring up the Neo-Nazi angle.

My money is simply on the Muslims for a number of reasons. One the French authorities are afraid of them. Two, Muslims in France have a bad rep for violence towards non-believers, especially Jews. Three, the MSM will often over look Muslim violence towards unbelievers.

All this adds up to a green light for the Muslims. The Neo-Nazis have none of these advantages. If the European groups are anything like the American variants, heavily infiltrated by the authorities.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Anon and Sol/You New. :)

Well, it's a short trip in France from throwing rocks at an infidel mass to shooting bullets at an infidel religious school.

FRANCE: MUSLIM YOUTHS THROW ROCKS AT WORSHIPPERS DURING MASS…….

Egghead

marcmarc said...

Anonymous said...
This looks like neo-nazi style
attacks so Marine Le Pen will not be pleased with the timing.

Something stinks in the state of France

Anonymous said...

You can be sure when the shooter is apprehended he will have a traditional French name such as Mohammad.

laine said...

Better hope that if the shooter is apprehended he has not read any conservative blogs. I don't think it's at all certain the perpetrator is Muslim, especially if the "ethnic" soldiers turn out to be a visible minority. Secondly, it would be a new style for Muslims. Neo-nazis have always gone for the tough "leather" look. If it turns out to be someone from their ranks, he is the stupidest one ever, handing the coming French elections to the far left socialists who will accelerate Muslim immigration and rights. This is exactly the effect crazy Breyvik ended up having in Norway. He sealed their coffin. It could be a leftist "anti"-fascist type trying to undercut le Pen's chances of making the kind of advance to respectable numbers that Geert Wilders did. The French are socialist sheep, easily stampeded back to that party which incidentally, had just fallen behind Sarkozy's what passes for conservative in France party in the polls. Coincidence?

Anonymous said...

I'll be surprised if the shooter is found.

It seems a little too neat for me that the media and government response has been to blame the 'anti immigrant rhetoric' during the French political campaign. Marine le Pen is doing well, so what perfect timing to instigate an attack on Jews AND ethnic minority soldiers, two of whom were apparently muslim.

It would be terribly cynical to say the whole thing has been orchestrated to discredit le Pen's campaign. TPTB couldn't possibly have come up with such a plan - could they?

Cynic A

Anonymous said...

Aren't muslims the old Nazis?

Nemesis said...

This incident has no precedence from amongst the neo-nazi movement and is more in keeping with the Islamist model of Jew killing and
targetting those Muslims who become too Westernized.

I disagree with laine's comment as I have spent some time in France and found that the rural (anyplace away from Paris) French have no real trust in how the current crop of politicians govern from Paris. Parisiennes are more socialized than their rural cousins who tend to be very conservative in their outlook. At least that is the impression I managed to form from my dealings with ordinary French citizens. Those I managed to converse with made it very plain they do not like what is happening to France and would like immigration to cease before it is too late.

RegulusSeradly said...

I want to point out two things for the earlier commentators:

1) There is no reason to assume that a Muslim would not kill two Muslim soldiers of the French State. In fact, that would be a very strong motivator for a jihadist to kill such soldiers rather than the other way around.

2) There is really no contradiction between the killer being being a Muslim and also a "neo-Nazi".

Anonymous said...

Seems that the shooter is a 24 year old muslim man. Quell surprise!

Cyberdog

Anonymous from 3/20 3:26 AM said...

And today a suspect named Mohammad Merah was arrested for this crime. Sometimes I even impress myself.