After the attacks of Hamas of October 7 in Israelthere had been alerts in schools then the starspaintings of David stencilled on walls in the capital. This Friday, it’s on the side of the Iranian embassy, a stone’s throw from the Trocadéro (16th arrondissement), that the police, the BRI (Research and Intervention Brigade) of the Parisian PJ in particular, had to intervene to arrest a threatening 60-year-old man equipped with fake explosives. This even though there are currently great tensions between the Islamic Republic and the Hebrew State.
Static presence in front of the “most sensitive or emblematic places and buildings”
It is in this tormented international context that Pesa’h, the Jewish Passover, begins this Monday. On April 14, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, issued a telegram that Le Parisien was able to consult, to call on the police to be “extremely vigilant” and to “reinforce security”. .
The minister writes: “The very high level of the terrorist threat, the continued high level of acts of an anti-Semitic nature, as well as the persistence of tensions at the international level, including Iran’s attack on Israel this Saturday, April 13, demand the maintenance of extreme vigilance, immediately with regard to the context (…) and with regard to manifestations and places of a religious and community nature of Jewish worship in anticipation of the festival of Pesa’h”, of the April 22 to 30.
Gérald Darmanin thus requests a presence in the “most sensitive or emblematic places and buildings. This presence must be static and visible at the times of arrival and departure of the faithful.” He adds: “The security forces will naturally not be able to carry out these missions alone”, proposing to “requisition the Sentinelle soldiers”.
Beyond places of worship, Place Beauvau also requests “specific attention” to Jewish faith schools or specialized businesses with contact by the police or gendarmes to “provide vigilance and security advice”.
