The French umbrella Jewish organisation, CRIF, is to stage a demonstration in Paris Tuesday night in support of Israel “to differentiate between the Israeli government acting in self-defence of its people and Hamas launching rockets at them without provocation in the preceding days”.
In a statement, CRIF insisted it was necessary to demonstrate “you cannot make an equivalence between the State of Israel, which attempts to spare civilians through making precise strikes and announcements, and Hamas which puts civilians in the front line by hiding its murderous weapons amongst them”.
The CRIF’s announcement followed French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius’ visit to Israel and Ramallah Sunday, where he sought to reinforce the French government’s intended balanced position on the Gaza escalation, as he told Israeli President Shimon Peres “there are fatalities in Gaza as well”.
Summing up the somewhat divided French position, in light of its close relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he repeated his calls for a French-facilitated ceasefire, as he concluded: “France is a peace-seeking nation; we maintain relations with everyone and will do all in our power to assist in returning quiet to the region."
The Israeli government has maintained throughout this latest crisis that Hamas has adopted a policy of intentionally targeting Israeli civilians, insisting that they in turn have made every effort to avoid hitting innocent civilians in Gaza.
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Shimon Peres Friday, as he stressed: “we cannot abandon women and children to the madness of Hamas which continues to fire at civilians without reason. Hamas has no reason to fire at Israel's civilians.” Peres replied Israel’s operation in Gaza constituted “a justified defence of our civilians”.
Calling on interested parties to show their support for Israel at Tuesday’s rally in front of Israel’s embassy in Paris, the CRIF insisted it was necessary to demonstrate the gulf between “the democratic and pluralistic State of Israel, and the terrorist and totalitarian Hamas movement, which advocates a culture of death and which espouses genocidal rhetoric against Jews in its charter”.
“Those who threaten Israel threaten the friends of Israel,” the statement further contended, as it asserted “it’s the duty of all those in favour of direct negotiations to make a commitment for peace” by attending the demonstration.
The CRIF called on “all Jewish organisations and individuals who love and support the Jewish State to unite” in participating in the solidarity protest.