Victims

Four people were killed in the blast. Philippe Bouissou (22 years old), passing by on his motorbike, was killed immediately. Aliza Shagrir (44 years old), an Israeli TV presenter on holiday, was killed while she was walking on the pavement outside. Jean-Michel Barbé, a driver, was parked outside the synagogue and was waiting for clients inside. Hilario Lopes-Fernandez, a Portuguese housekeeper of the Victor Hugo Hotel, located almost in front of the temple, was seriously wounded and died of her injuries two days later. Forty-six people were also wounded.^[3]

According to investigators, the bomb had been set to detonate after prayers concluded and as worshippers were leaving the building. However, the service had started several minutes late and therefore there were few people in the vicinity of the bomb.^[3]

Public reaction

After the attack, there was widespread criticism of the French government. For three days after the attacks, tens of thousands of people, including Jews, non-Jews, trade unionists, politicians, marched along the Champs-Élysées and in the vicinity of the Élysée Palace in protest of the attack. The night of the bombing, demonstrations began at the Charles de Gaulle–Étoile metro station. The next morning, over 10,000 people gathered at the synagogue in support. Simone Veil, then President of the European Parliament, participated in the solidarity marches, but the crowd's anger at her perceived support for the government forced riot police to take her to safety.^[4]

In solidarity with the Jewish community, France's two major trade unions, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), called for a nationwide strike on 7 October.^[4]

Jewish community's response

The Jewish community's immediate reaction was one of anger. Many Jews blamed the government of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, which they perceived as too soft on Palestinian terrorists and far-right extremism.^[5] On 5 October, Jewish demonstrators attempted to storm the Élysée Palace and the Ministry of the Interior, clashing with riot police. Passers-by with an apparent neo-Nazi appearance were harassed or beaten.^[4]

Mayor of New York City Ed Koch, who was Jewish, accused Giscard of "delivering the Jews to the PLO", similar to how Vichy France delivered Jews to the Nazis.^[6]

Law enforcement response

The government subsequently announced a series of measures to protect Jewish institutions. Two hundred police cars and three companies of riot police (a total of 600 police) were assigned to protect the Jewish community across France. In Paris, riot police were stationed in front of every synagogue. In Strasbourg, authorities closed the street in front of the city's synagogue to vehicular traffic.^[4]

Raymond Barre controversy

The night of the attack, Prime Minister Raymond Barre said to French television station TF1: "This odious attack was aimed at hitting Israelites going to the synagogue but hit innocent French people who crossed the Copernic street". His words of 8 October in the National Assembly, assuring his "Jewish compatriots" of the "sympathy of the all nation", failed to assuage. Just before his death in August 2007, Raymond Barre blamed the controversy about his statement on the "Jewish lobby".^[7]

Effect on 1981 presidential election

Long-simmering dissatisfaction from the increasingly vocal 700,000-person Jewish community in France about the anti-Israel tilt of Giscard's policies and his government's tepid response to the synagogue bombing may have contributed to his loss in the 1981 presidential election. Giscard won a majority of the Jewish vote for his successful campaign in the 1974 presidential election, which he won by only 340,000 votes. But a few months after his election, he dispatched his Foreign Minister Jean Sauvagnargues to meet with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat. Giscard also approved the opening of a PLO bureau in Paris. In 1977, his government approved the release of Palestinian militant Abu Daoud, the mastermind of the 1972 Munich massacre.^[8]

In the 1981 election, a majority of Jewish voters went for François Mitterrand of the Socialist Party, who won in the second round.

False neo-Nazi claim

Within hours of the bombing, a man claiming to represent the neo-Nazi Federation of National and European Action (FANE) called the Agence France-Presse to claim responsibility on behalf of the FANE. However, Jean-Yves Pellay, a 25-year-old who claimed to be Jewish, later confessed to making the claim in order to "get the neo-Nazis in trouble with the law".^[5]

One year after the bombing, investigators had failed to identify any solid perpetrators.^[5] Police initially sought two Cypriot suspects, Alexander Panadryu and Joseph Mathias, but the investigation did not progress at the time. It was alleged that five Palestinians had travelled to France under forged Cypriot passports.^[9]

French investigators later attributed the attack to the Palestinian militant group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.^[1]

Hassan Diab