A conflict between neighbors in France ended in the death of a 90-year-old Jew. Police arrested the neighbor of the deceased, a 51-year-old man suspected of murdering the Jewish elder outside his home in Lyon, France. Police rule out an antisemitic motive and claim it is an argument between neighbors
Rene Hajaj, a 90-year-old Jewish man, was pushed to his death from a great height in his apartment building in Lyon, France by his 51-year-old neighbor. Police initially investigated a possible antisemitic motive, but later ruled it out and determined that the push was the result of an argument between the two that was unrelated to the fact that Hajjaj was Jewish. This is according to a report in the Jewish newspaper Tribune Juive. French media did not report the identity of the suspect or other details about him.
Hajjaj’s body was found last Tuesday around 20:00 by police on Du Plato Avenue, the ninth district of the city of Lyon, the victim was identified as a tenant on the second floor of the large compound at the foot of which his body was found. But his injuries seemed unsuitable for falling from such a low altitude. The police conducted a thorough investigation, and found that he had fallen from a higher place, apparently from the neighbor’s apartment with which he had confronted. According to unverified reports, the neighbor is a Muslim.
Reports of the incident provoked anger and distrust among many French Jews on and off social media. The case is reminiscent of the brutal death of the ultra-Orthodox doctor Dr. Sarah Halimi the 14th in 2017. A neighbor of Kovili Traura, an antisemitic Muslim, then murdered her in her home and threw her body from the window of her third-floor apartment while shouting ‘Allah Akbar’.
Another brutal incident that occurred in February, a Jewish boy named Jeremy Cohen was murdered in a suburb of Paris after fleeing for his life from a group of antisemitic Muslims and being run over under a passing electric train. His murder was initially investigated as an accident until his family obtained the footage of the assault. The family gave the testimony to Eric Zamor, a far-right French Jewish politician who rode the case in his presidential campaign last month, which did not really help him.