Four Jewish Women Found Dead in Damascus Jewish Quarters

Four Jewish women were killed in Damascus within the last week Their bodies were found Friday in a street of the Jewish quarter, it was reported by the French daily. Le Figaro, which cited a “sure source” for this information. According to the daily, several dozen Jews left their ghetto to participate in a demonstration by Christian women last Tuesday to protest Syria’s anti-Jewish discrimination. The protestors were reportedly brutally dispersed by the police. Le Figaro, in its Friday edition, quoted diplomatic sources saying that the slayings were by extremists opposed to President Hafez Assad’s Middle East policy, but it was not known whether the extremists were Palestinian or local opponents of Assad.

Earlier, the French state radio, France Inter, reported that a number of Syrian Christians, mainly women, had conducted such a demonstration in the center of Damascus and tried to march through the streets. According to this report, they were protesting a recent incident involving a number of Syrian Jewish women who reportedly had been arrested and maltreated and others believed to have been killed. It was not immediately clear whether the four women found Friday were those killed earlier or whether they were killed during the demonstration last Tuesday. The French radio did not mention any source of datelines as to where its report originated. Other sources in Paris confirmed the veracity of the report of the demonstration.