Thousands of people take to the streets in London and Paris to “not forget” the victims of October 7

Thousands of people gathered on Sunday in London, Paris, Berlin and Geneva for a tribute to the victims of October 7, on the eve of the first anniversary of the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel .

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At the same time, in London, Paris, Caracas, Washington, Rabat and Cape Town, tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday and Sunday their support for the Palestinians in Gaza, but also in Lebanon.

In retaliation for the killings of October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, Israel launched a devastating war which has so far left at least 41,870 dead in the Gaza Strip, the majority civilians, according to Hamas.

“Release the hostages now,” protesters in London chanted in Hyde Park, in the center of the British capital, where a large stage had been set up.

In total, 251 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip. A year later, 97 are still being held there, including 33 declared dead.

This time of remembrance was organized by several organizations representing the Jewish community including the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council.

“Not just names”

“We are here to remember the victims of October 7. We are here so that the world does not forget them,” Henry Grunwald, president of the organizing committee, told AFF.

The commemoration, which lasted more than two hours, was punctuated by music and several interventions from the platform. Portraits of the 1,205 people killed on October 7 were broadcast on a giant screen and candles distributed to the public.

At the podium, Mandy Damari spoke at length about Emily, her daughter, who has dual Israeli and British nationality. She is one of the hostages still in the hands of Hamas.

“It’s not just names on a sign,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I need to hug her, see her smile.”

The chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said he prays “for all the lives that have been lost in Israel and also in Gaza and Lebanon.”

“Shockwave”

In Paris, a few thousand people gathered around a stage where speakers, including relatives of victims, and singers took turns. A gathering whose slogan was “I am standing”.

A mother thus recounted, her voice filled with tears, the death of her son “shot by vile terrorists” during “one of the most terrible days since the creation of the State of Israel”.

Videos from October 7 were broadcast on giant screens, not obscuring certain very harsh images. Shouts then ring out: “Bands of terrorists, monstrous people, Nazis, trash!”

In the public carrying small Israeli and French flags, some waved signs “Rapes in progress – Hamas terrorist” or even “Am Israel Haï” (“Israel is alive”).

Robert Zbili, the president of the Jewish National Fund (KKL) France which organized the gathering, explained to AFP that October 7, 2023 was like a “shock wave for us, Jews in the diaspora”. France has the largest Jewish community in Europe.

Also present was Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy, a town near Paris and the main point of departure from France to the Nazi concentration and extermination camps from 1941 to 1944.

Other rallies were organized across France, among others in Clermont-Ferrand (center) or Toulouse (south-west) to demand “the release of the last hostages or their corpses”.

“Blind hatred of Israel”

In Berlin, a demonstration in support of Israel, organized near the Brandenburg Gate, brought together around 500 people, according to police. Many waved the Israeli flag and some carried photos of hostages.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned on Sunday of rising anti-Semitism in Germany.

“Jewish citizens here in Germany must not live in fear and terror,” he said, adding: “We will never accept anti-Semitism and blind hatred of Israel.”

More than 5,000 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in Germany in 2023, half of them after October 7, according to the government commissioner for combating anti-Semitism, Felix Klein.

In Geneva, in front of the UN headquarters, around 300 people paid tribute in the evening to the victims of October 7. Portraits of the hostages were placed on stakes.

“We will not forget. We must never allow October 7 to happen again,” said the American ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, Michèle Taylor.

In Israel, hundreds of Israelis gathered at a concert hall in Tel Aviv. Photos of the victims flashed on a screen, while participants lit candles, wrote messages or hugged each other in silence.

“Coming here, one year after this atrocious massacre, is deeply moving,” said Solly Laniado, one of the organizers. “We don’t know how to find the words. We are afraid of bursting into tears.”

On the first anniversary of the deadliest day since Israel’s founding in 1948, President Isaac Herzog will preside over a commemorative ceremony on Monday in Sderot, one of the hardest-hit towns in the country’s south.

A ceremony will take place in Kibbutz Reïm, near which the electro music festival was organized Tribe of Nova of which at least 370 participants were killed by Hamas, as well as in a nearby kibbutz, Beeri, where more than 100 people were killed on October 7, 2023.

Tributes to the victims of October 7 are to take place on Monday across the world.