“No anti-Semitic act must be tolerated…” The emotion of the Jewish community of Toulouse, one year after the Hamas attack

It was only at 12:50 p.m., on this Sunday, October 6, at the very end of the ceremony, that hope, and a little poetry, appeared in the Toulouse air, when the yellow balloons were released into the sky with repeated cries of “Free the hostages”. The Place du Salin, in Toulouse, had undoubtedly just experienced one of the most solemn moments of recent decades, paying tribute to the victims of the atrocities committed just one year ago, this sinister October 7, 2023, by the barbarians of Hamas on Israeli civilian populations.

The entire Jewish community of Toulouse, joined by all those refusing Islamist terrorism and savagery, was gathered there, on the Place du Salin, a symbol that the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, was to point out in his vibrant speech: “This Salin Square has long been a place of torture and torture, but it also symbolizes justice, so that human and democratic principles triumph.”

A year ago, the faces of those tortured in the largest massacre of Jews the world had seen since the Holocaust appeared on our screens.

The #7octobre last, early in the morning in southern Israel, the unspeakable happened again: a pogrom. Hamas, the missiles, the brigades…

— Carole Delga (@CaroleDelga)

Jean-Luc Moudenc was heartily applauded when he spoke of the right of reply, and the necessary means implemented by Israel, to defend itself from the enemy Hamas. “And above all, we have been in solidarity with the families and the Israeli people since October 7, 2023,” insists the mayor of Toulouse.

“The French hostages must be released!

Before him, Franck Touboul, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) of Toulouse Occitanie, first thanked the State and the police “for having, during this last year, ensured security of our schools and places of worship.

Mr. Touboul of course returned in detail to the anatomy of the hell experienced on a daily basis by the families of the victims of the massacre of October 7, 2023, and those of the hostages – around a hundred – still held by Hamas: “What? I hear about a ceasefire, but with whom I don’t understand the double standards of some of our leaders… A crime has been committed against our civilization, our way of life… Yes, Israel is a European enclave. in the midst of Islamist entities that are often adrift.”

HAS #Toulousehundreds of people gathered to commemorate the victims of #7Octobre and demand the release of hostages still held by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/YzFrRmCPdQ

— Lucas Duval (@LucasDuval_)

And on recent news, Franck Touboul drives home the point: “There is no conflict with Lebanon, but with Hezbollah which is coming to attack Israel. And there is no genocide in Gaza, because a democracy do not commit genocide.”

Often punctuated by the words “Free the hostages” whose faces are displayed on signs brandished high up, the speeches of the speakers follow one another in front of the gates of the courthouse, up to the committed and warm words of Prefect Durand: “The French hostages must be released. Jews do not have to hide, no anti-Semitic act must be tolerated, even the most trivial ones.

Also read:
INTERVIEW. Middle East war: on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, “Benjamin Netanyahu has no strategy”

So, the ceremony takes on a little more dimension when Lena Chicheportiche, on the microphone, recounts in detail this monstrous attack of October 7, 2023, recontextualizing it with the actors and actresses who were victims of the tragedy. Béatrice Jaoui-Dahan succeeds her, the little cousin of Ofer Kalderon, a Franco-Isarëlian hostage still held by Hamas, whose kidnapped children were fortunately able to be freed. “But, as with Ohad Yahalomi (the second Franco-Israeli hostage, editor’s note), we have no news of Ofer, and that is unbearable.”