A swift response by the staff of the establishment, which was crowded at the time, prevented the fire from being lit.
Spanish police are investigating an attempted arson attack on a kosher restaurant in central Madrid, Jewish organizations said on Wednesday.
According to a Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain press release, the assailant entered the Rimmon eatery at 10:39 p.m. on Tuesday and “sprayed the entrance of the establishment with a liquid with a strong gasoline smell, intending to set fire and burn down the premises.”
A swift response by the staff of the crowded restaurant prevented the fire from being lit, the federation noted. The attacker fled before police arrived, the organization said.
Authorities were working to track down the perpetrator and establish a motive for his actions, according to the press release on Wednesday.
In a joint statement with the local Jewish community, the country’s Jewish federation condemned the foiled attack as “an antisemitic act with the goal of causing casualties, attacking public facilities frequented by the Jewish community and terrorizing members of our community.
“This is an act motivated by hatred, vile and savage, which attacks coexistence, freedom and tolerance—values that have always characterized the citizens of Madrid,” added the statement.
On Jan. 1, Spanish activists from the far-left Canarias Insumisa group set an Israeli flag alight outside a sports arena in the country’s Canary Islands, ahead of a basketball game featuring Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Local media described the incident as a “protest against the occupation and genocide that the Palestinian people are undergoing,” repeating the false accusation that Israel “murdered 47,000 women, children and the elderly in one year” during its war against terrorists in Gaza.
The Jewish state’s military fought Hamas in the Strip for almost 16 months after the Iranian-backed terrorist organization led a mass cross-border attack, murdering some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 others.
In May, the government in Madrid announced its recognition of a Palestinian state, in a decision welcomed by both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Image - JNS/Madrid, Aug. 19, 2019. Photo by Daniel Prado/Unsplash