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Irish man arrested in France after threatening Australian Jewish couple in Avignon supermarket

French police arrested an Irish man in his sixties on Wednesday over an alleged antisemitic confrontation in an Avignon supermarket, where he reportedly threatened an Australian Jewish couple and said he was sorry Hitler didn't finish the job. The incident occurred in mid-August and gained attention after video footage circulated on social media, with the couple's account detailed in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post.

By Tertius News AI Desk 3 outlets · 3 distinct · 3 articles Version 1 Coverage Aug 27, 2026 Published 7h ago

Arrest and Incident

French police arrested an Irish man in his sixties on Wednesday in connection with an alleged antisemitic confrontation in an Avignon supermarket, as reported by Agence France-Presse and handled by the Marseille research section and the Avignon research brigade. The incident occurred in mid-August and gained attention after video footage circulated on social media.

According to the couple's initial account to the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), the encounter began as friendly conversation before turning hostile when the tourist mentioned Irish policies regarding Hamas and Hezbollah. When the tourist started recording, the man threatened them on camera, saying, "You get the f away from me before I put a fing bullet in your head, okay?"

Victim's Account

Speaking exclusively to The Jerusalem Post, the wife of the targeted tourist provided a deeper account: "That short interaction with the Irishman who introduced himself as Paddy was such a terrifying and perfect reflection of how Jews are treated all over the world in 2026, just like in 1942. As soon as he realized we were Jews, his friendly veneer morphed into such violent hatred, and we were no longer English speakers that he wanted to banter with, but vermin he wanted to exterminate."

She claimed that the man did not deny his remarks on camera, saying, "I repeated on the video that 'Paddy from Ireland' told me he was sorry Hitler didn't finish the job, so that he had the opportunity to deny it, but he didn't deny it. He actually said, 'Bring back Hitler.' He then followed up with the threat to 'put a f*ing bullet in my head.'"

Describing him as "sinister enough to make good on his threat," she added that as they walked away, she looked back and saw that "he had picked up a large cantaloupe and he mimed that he was considering if could throw it at me."

The wife also recounted that her father survived the Holocaust and weighed 38 kilograms when he arrived in Australia in 1946, noting that his relatives all ended up in Auschwitz. She said she was heading to Djerba the next day and did not want to draw attention to themselves. The couple connected with French Jewish security liaisons and attended the Nice police station on Monday.

Reactions

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez commended the authorities on social media, posting "Antisemitism must be fought firmly and relentlessly." Robert Gregory, President of AJA, told the Post he commends the French authorities for acting swiftly.

Australian security expert Daniel Lewkovitz, who published the video, said it was viewed over 11 million times. He also noted that he didn't see a single Irish outlet report on the story after the incident or the arrest.

How each outlet told it

The Journal as of Aug 27, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

Framing: The headline emphasizes the arrest and the nature of the alleged threat and antisemitic remarks, but leaves out the man's age, the location details, and the potential sentence length. — neutral/reportorial, supported by quotes such as 'Kudos to the gendarmes for their investigation' and 'Antisemitism must be fought firmly and relentlessly.'

Facts Included:

An Irishman is facing up to five years in prison in France.
He was arrested for telling a Jewish woman he would 'put a bullet' in her head.
The man is aged in his 60s and cannot be named for legal reasons.
He is accused of making antisemitic comments referring to Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.
He was in custody in the Marseille area on Wednesday.
He was identified in a video involving two Australian tourists.
The video was shot in a Le Pontet hypermarket on the outskirts of Avignon earlier this month.
The video was circulated globally by the alleged victims.
In the footage, the suspect is referred to as 'Paddy'.
A woman accuses him of saying: 'I’m sorry Hitler didn’t finish the job'.
He is clearly heard to say: 'You get the fuck away, before I put a fucking bullet in your head.'
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced the arrest on X on Wednesday evening, saying: 'Kudos to the gendarmes for their investigation following the antisemitic threats and remarks made against tourists this summer at a hypermarket in Le Pontet.'
Nunez added: 'Antisemitism must be fought firmly and relentlessly.'
A French government spokesman said the couple were 'violently confronted in a French supermarket by an Irish national', who 'allegedly made serious antisemitic remarks before issuing death threats.'
The investigation is being carried out by judicial police based in Marseille.
Jewish groups in France have regularly complained about antisemitism being on the increase, with violent acts increasingly linked to the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
France’s anti-discrimination minister Aurore Bergé said: 'France will never compromise with antisemitism and hatred. Our country is particularly mobilised, especially since October 7, 2023 [the date of the Hamas attack on Israel] and will remain so for as long as necessary to ensure that no one ever has to suffer hatred because of their origin or their real or perceived identity.'
Serge Papin, the tourism minister, said: 'France is a welcoming land, open to all those who wish to discover it, regardless of their nationality or religion. No tourist should be targeted, threatened, or discriminated against because of who they are or what they believe.'
There was no initial comment from the arrested man, or his legal counsel.
Enquiry sources said he had been remanded in custody, pending a possible charge or release.
If charged he is likely to face a trial later this year.

Read the source article →

Ynetnews as of Aug 27, 2026, 11:16 AM UTC

Framing: The headline emphasizes the arrest and the alleged antisemitic remark, framing the incident as a hate crime. — measured

Facts Included:

An Irish man in his 60s has been arrested in Avignon, southern France.
The arrest is over an alleged antisemitic confrontation with an Australian Jewish couple earlier this month.
The information comes from a source close to the investigation, told to AFP.
The arrest follows a supermarket encounter that went viral after Karen Ivers filmed part of the confrontation.
The man introduced himself as 'Paddy from Ireland.'
He allegedly told the couple he was sorry Hitler had not 'finished the job.'
He allegedly threatened to shoot them.
French authorities transferred the investigation to investigative units in Marseille and Avignon.
The incident began as a casual conversation about soccer.
Ivers said the man approached after noticing her husband's French football shirt and hearing them speak English.
The man jokingly asked why an Englishman was wearing a French shirt.
Her husband explained he was Australian and simply liked the jersey.
The exchange was friendly at first, with introductions and handshakes.
The conversation shifted to politics.
Ivers said she criticized Irish policy toward Israel and accused Ireland of taking an anti-Israel position and supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
She said the man's demeanor then changed and he made the Hitler remark.
Ivers began filming immediately afterward.
In the video, she repeatedly asks him to repeat the alleged remark and tells the camera what he had just said.
The man then issues a direct threat: 'Get the fuck away from me before I put a fucking bullet in your head, okay?'
The initial alleged Hitler remark is not heard in the video; it is described by Ivers on camera moments later.
The death threat is clearly recorded.
She posted the footage on X with the message: 'Make this Irish Nazi psychopath famous.'
The video spread rapidly and attracted around 1 million views within hours.

Read the source article →

Jerusalem Post as of Aug 27, 2026, 11:15 AM UTC

Framing: The headline emphasizes the arrest and the serious nature of the threats, including the Hitler reference, but omits the couple's delayed report and the context of the initial conversation. — The tone is serious and supportive of the victims, as seen in the quote from the wife describing the incident as 'a terrifying and perfect reflection of how Jews are treated.'

Facts Included:

An Irish man in his sixties was arrested by French police on Wednesday.
The man is suspected of making antisemitic threats to an Australian Jewish couple.
The incident occurred inside a supermarket in Avignon.
The incident occurred in mid-August.
Video footage of the incident circulated on social media.
The man allegedly told the couple he was sorry Hitler didn't finish the job.
The man allegedly threatened to put a bullet in the woman's head.
The man allegedly mimed throwing a cantaloupe at the couple.
The case was handled by the Marseille research section and the Avignon research brigade.
The couple reported the incident to police in Nice on Monday.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez commended authorities on social media.
Robert Gregory, President of the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), commented on the incident.
Daniel Lewkovitz, an Australian security expert, published the video on X/Twitter, where it was viewed over 11 million times.

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimAn Irish man in his sixties was arrested by French police on Wednesday in connection with an alleged antisemitic confrontation in Avignon.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Jerusalem Post as of Aug 27, 2026, 11:15 AM UTC
ClaimThe incident occurred in mid-August in an Avignon supermarket.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via Jerusalem Post as of Aug 27, 2026, 11:15 AM UTC
ClaimAustralian security expert Daniel Lewkovitz stated the video was viewed over 11 million times.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Jerusalem Post as of Aug 27, 2026, 11:15 AM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

1 outlet · 1 article consulted: Jerusalem Post 3 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-27