A few thousand people gathered Sunday afternoon in Paris in support of Israel and the victims of the October 7 attack, noted an AFP journalist.
From 3:00 p.m., demonstrators of all ages crowded into Place de Fontenoy, around a stage where speakers and singers took turns, for this gathering organized by the Jewish National Fund (KKL) with the slogan “I am standing”.
It is about coming together “in support of Israel, of the Israeli people, and “in memory of the people who died and in support of those who were kidnapped” on October 7, 2023, Robert Zbili told AFP, the president of the KKL, who speaks of “a shock wave for us Jews in the diaspora”.
The gathering, organized on the eve of the Crif rally on Monday evening, also gave the microphone to several parents of victims. A mother thus recounts, 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”.
Several representatives of the Jewish community were present, notably the president of Crif Yonathan Arfi and that of the United Jewish Social Fund Ariel Goldmann, but also the deputy Constance Le Grip, the mayor of the 17th arrondissement Geoffrey Boulard, as well as the imam of Drancy Hassen Chalghoumi.
Before several artists appear on stage (including the presenter Arthur and the singer Amir), videos from October 7 are broadcast on the giant screens, not obscuring certain very harsh images. Shouts then ring out: “Bands of terrorists, monstrous people, Nazis, trash!”
The mention of LFI is also regularly whistled.
In the public carrying small Israeli and French flags, some waved signs saying “Rapes in progress – Hamas terrorist” or even “Am Israel Haï” (“Israel is alive”).
Other rallies were also organized in several French cities.
So around sixty people gathered on Sunday morning in Clermont-Ferrand, to demand “the release of the last hostages or their corpses”.
“This attack has traumatized Jews around the world,” said Michel Wurm, president of the Jewish community of Clermont-Ferrand.
In Toulouse, around 300 people took part in the rally organized near the Palace of Justice, on the gates of which a banner was displayed reading: “1,200 Israelis murdered, the greatest crime against humanity committed against Jews since the Holocaust.”
