About 20,000 people, according to the organizers, gathered on Sunday, October 6, starting at 3 p.m., in the 7my district of Paris, at the foot of UNESCO, to demand the release of the hostages still detained in Gaza and to affirm their solidarity with the State and people of Israel. One year after the Hamas terrorist attack, on October 7, 2023, “Today we live 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, created forty-eight hours after the massacre. Highlight an initiative “unpublished”.
Under the auspices of the French branch of the Jewish National Fund, the KKL (Keren Kayemet Le Israel, which aims to raise funds for projects related to land, water and forests in Israel), around fifty Jewish organizations and institutions responded to the call. #Jesusdebout, “whatever your opinions and differences”insists M.me Ifra. On its website, the KKL called for paying tribute to the “victims of this disastrous day, this “day of the Shoah”, when Islamist barbarism massacred, murdered, raped, burned men, women and children because they were Jews”report “the unleashing of anti-Semitic hatred throughout the world and particularly 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.”
For all this, Luz and Stéphane came (those interviewed in the crowd did not want to give their last names), aged 54 and 55: “first for the hostages”AND “because Israel is a watchdog, a small democracy surrounded by authoritarian regimes and theocracies, fighting for its survival but also for us, because we have chosen our side”. She had a French flag tied to her shoulders with the following message pasted on top of 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, they 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 also “horrified” for 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 motto, fight against anti-Semitism or support Israel, for a long time only Jews have taken to the streets to support Jews”fatalistic note, Franck, a 49-year-old Parisian lawyer.
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