After the march, ECI issued a statement calling for Europe and Israel to stand united against the threats of radical Islam. At the rally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be seen marching in the front row with senior European political leaders, among them, European Union leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, as well as French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
In a unique interview, published on Sunday in Atlantic Monthly, the French Prime Minister warned that ”France is no longer France if Jews have to leave the country in fear of their lives.” Last year over 7,000 Jews left the country due to security concerns following a spike in violent attacks against Jewish targets.
’It is unacceptable that Jews still have to live in fear in Europe in 2015’, ECI Director Tomas Sandell said in a statement. ’If Jews are no longer secure to make France their home, it is not only the French Republic which has failed, but the European project as a whole’, he said. ’There is no Europe without vibrant and thriving Jewish communities. The Jewish community is a vital part of European society”
In November, ECI issued a joint statement with the European Jewish Congress in solidarity with Christians and other religious minorities currently being slaughtered in Syria and Iraq by the same terrorist groups behind the Paris attacks - ISIS and Al Qaeda. On Friday, it was ECI’s turn to express solidarity with the Jewish community in France after four Jews were killed in a terrorist attack in a kosher supermarket Paris, just 2 days after the horrific massacre at the French weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
’What offence did the customers in the kosher shop pose to the perpetrators other than being Jews?’, Sandell asked. ’One generation ago, this same ideology led to the killing of six million Jews in Europe.’
In less than two weeks, the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will be commemorated around the world.
’It is high time to ensure that Europe is safe for Jewish communities. Europe and Israel face the same enemies of open and pluralistic societies. Terrorism needs to be condemned and fought with equal determination, regardless of whether the attacks take place in Paris or Jerusalem, in Africa or in the Middle East. Europe and Israel should stand united in the fight against radical Islam, as well as other forms of political extremism that threaten our democratic societies.’