France launches probe over video of man seen harassing Jewish boy at Paris airport

Video from June shows suspect snatching video game from child’s hands, calling him a pig in French, and demanding that he dance for him

PARIS — France has launched a probe after a video emerged of a man harassing and humiliating a young Jewish child at a Paris airport, demanding that he “free Palestine” and “dance,” a judicial source said Tuesday.

The Paris police chief, Patrice Faure, expressed his “outrage at these unacceptable and intolerable remarks.”

“They will not go unpunished,” he said on X.

He said an investigation was “underway to identify the individual and bring him to justice.”

“We express our support for our Jewish compatriots and assure them of our full commitment to combating antisemitic acts,” Faure said in a post showing an image from the video of the incident.

An investigation into violence committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion has been launched, the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office told AFP without providing any details of the incident.

On Sunday, The SwordOfSalomon account posted footage of the incident on X which has been viewed more than 440,000 times, claiming that it was filmed at the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport on June 25.

The video shows a young boy, whose face has been pixelated, playing a video game. A man, whose face cannot be seen, comes up to the boy and takes the toy.

“Are you gonna free Palestine, bro?” the man says to the boy in English. “If you don’t free them, I’ll snatch your hat off, bro,” he says, referring to the child’s kippah.

The man also tells the child several times, in broken French, “dance, cachou” — apparently mispronouncing the French word “cochon” (pig), and the confused boy is seen trying to dance.

The account claimed that the man targeted two Jewish French children, one of whom was seven.

The incident comes amid soaring levels of antisemitism in France since Hamas launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023. The country saw 1,570 antisemitic incidents in 2024, nearly four times the average level before October 7, according to the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF), the representative organization of French Jewish groups.

Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, said the incident was “yet another illustration of the climate of antisemitism that has prevailed in Europe” since the 2023 assault.

He said he was struck by “the unbridled, uninhibited nature of the antisemitism.”

Paris airports company Groupe ADP said it was “working closely with the state services and all stakeholders in the airport community, including the Chief Rabbi, who is one of the airport chaplains,” on the investigation, and that there would be “no compromise” on antisemitism.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.