In Paris, “a moment of unity and emotion” at the rally in support of the hostages and Israel

Some 20,000 people, according to the organizers, gathered on Sunday October 6 from 3 p.m., in the 7^e district of Paris, at the foot of UNESCO, to demand the release of the hostages still held in Gaza and to affirm their solidarity with the State and the people of Israel. One year after the Hamas terrorist attack, on October 7, 2023, “Today we experienced a moment of unity and emotion, a moment that we needed”comments Sandra Ifrah, spokesperson for Women United for Peace, one of the organizing associations, which was created forty-eight hours after the massacre. She highlights an initiative “unpublished”.

Under the aegis of the French branch of the Jewish National Fund, the KKL (Keren Kayemet Le Israel, whose objective is to raise funds for projects linked to land, water and forests in Israel), a fifty Jewish organizations and institutions responded to the call #Jesuisdebout, “whatever their opinions and differences”insists M^me Ifrah. On its website, the KKL called for paying tribute to the “victims of this disastrous day, this “day of the Shoah”, when Islamist barbarity massacred, murdered, raped, burned, men, women and children because they were Jewish”denounce “the unleashing of anti-Semitic hatred throughout the world and in particular in our country” and affirm “our solidarity with the people and the State of Israel in the existential war they have been waging for a year against their enemies on seven fronts at once.”

It is for all these reasons that Luz and Stéphane (those interviewed in the crowd did not wish to give their last names), 54 and 55 years old, came: “first for the hostages”et “because Israel is a watchdog, a small democracy surrounded by authoritarian regimes and theocracies, which is fighting for its survival but also for us, because we have chosen our side”. She, a French flag tied on her shoulders with the following message stuck above an embroidered Star of David: “Anti-Semitism is not just a Jewish concern”. Him, with a huge Israeli flag in his hand. She, a non-Jew. Him, “secular Jew”.

“A mixed couple” as they say, who came without their children, “much more moderate” in their convictions, who did not hesitate to participate in the march against anti-Semitism in November 2023, but too “horrified” by the war in Gaza to respond to #Jesuisdebout and its call to support Israel. “We are here but that does not mean that we support Netanyahu’s policies, that has nothing to do with it”Luz insists. “In any case, whatever the slogan, fight against anti-Semitism or support for Israel, it has been a long time since only Jews took to the streets to support Jews”note, fatalist, Franck, 49-year-old Parisian lawyer.

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