STRASBOURG - A van used as a schoolbus by a Jewish school in this eastern French city has been firebombed in what a community leader has called an apparent anti-Semitic attack, local police said yesterday.
The van was attacked on Monday before dawn, 24 hours after unidentified assailants pelted a nearby synagogue with stones during the night, they said. There was no sign who was behind the two incidents.
A local Jewish leader linked the two attacks to marches on Saturday protesting against a planned ban on Islamic veils in school led by an anti-Zionist Muslim leader from Strasbourg.
"What I notice in both of these cases is the context and the timing, in connection with last Saturday's demonstration where several violently anti-Semitic speeches were given," said Pierre Levy, the regional representative of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish organizations.
