ANT KATZ with The Huffington Post/Andrew Hart

Bennett: “We will not accept when Jews

are simply shot on the streets of Europe”

Israel’s Diaspora Minister, Naftali Bennett, spoke to leaders of the Jewish community in Denmark this morning in the wake of the murder of a Jewish security guard who was shot and killed at a Copenhagen synagogue last night, Jeremy Ruden, a spokesman for the Diaspora Department told Jewish Report this afternoon.

“The Minister was updated on the situation and expressed his condolences to the guard’s family,” said Ruden.

Bennett, pictured at right, told Danish Jewry, sending a tough message to European countries in general, that: “The State of Israel stands by you in this difficult time, ready to assist in any way.

“We can’t accept when Jews are simply shot on the streets of Europe. We will not let Jews become easy targets for anti-Semitic attacks,” minister Bennett said.   

Previous warning

A similar warning was sounded by Yaakov Hagoel, head of the Department for Countering Anti-Semitism of the World Zionist Organization in December 2014.

Hagoel, pictured at left, told delegates at a Belgian conference on countering anti-Semitism in Europe: “I call on the EU to promote legislation against anti-Semitism at the European Commission and for it to be implemented in all 28 EU countries, as they are doing in France.”

READ ON SAJR how Goel told European nations roundly: “We say enough violence, enough of anti-Semitism!

“No more humiliation of Jews. No more murder of Jews. No more anti-Semitism. We are proud to have one Jewish state with our own army,” threatened Hagoel in no uncertain terms.

Huffington Post

According to Andrew Hart writing in The Huffington Post, that there was a high alert in place after a shooting near a synagogue in Copenhagen left a civilian dead and two police officers wounded early Sunday morning, hours after a gunman fatally shot a man and wounded three police officers at a free speech event in the same city.

Combined, the shootings left two dead and five police officers wounded.

The second attack, adjacent to a synagogue in the Krystalgade area of Copenhagen, left a male civilian dead, and two officers with wounds to the arms and legs, police said. The wounded officers were receiving treatment. Police spokesman Allan Wadsworth-Hansen said that is was unclear if the attack at the synagogue was related to the attack at the free speech event.

The identity of the victim had not been released.

Police scoured the city for suspects, and hours after the synagogue attack, Copenhagen police confirmed that they had shot and killed a man near the Nørrebro rail station. Police said that when they confronted the man, who was a person of interest, he opened fire and was then shot. No police officers were shot, a statementsaid. The man’s identity and condition were unknown. Police were investigating if he was connected to the attacks.

Police had thus far not apprehended a suspect from either shootings, and were uncertain if it was the same perpetrator that had carried out both attacks. The synagogue shooter had fled on foot. Police described the suspect as a male wearing black pants and shoes, along with a gray jacket with a multi-colored portion.