Close to 7,000 people demonstrated their support for Israel Tuesday night in Paris “at this testing and painful time”.
CRIF, the umbrella organisation of French Jewry, had called for a “united gathering of all Jewish communal organisations and all those who love the State of Israel to support it” in front of the Israeli Embassy, close to the Champs Elysees roundabout.
“Because you cannot equate the Israeli government acting in self-defence to ensure the safety of its citizens with Hamas, which has launched hundreds of rockets against them, without provocation, over the last few days,” explained the CRIF in a statement ahead of the protest.
Protesters waved numerous Israeli flags and shouted slogans including “Hamas assassins” and “Israeli will live, Israel will win", as well as singing Hebrew songs.
On the stage, CRIF President Richard Prasquier read a letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Israeli ambassador Yossi Gal expressing “his love and support for Israel in the name of the Jews of France”.
“We hope that peace will come one day but we know that we should have no illusions about the current situation,” he added.
Prasquier had demanded there should be no banners, flags or signs identifying any organisation. “The friends of Israel have come tonight in their totality and in their unity,” he said, expressing his admiration for the feelings of unity characterised by the collective organisation of the demonstration by all the Jewish organisations.
“This collective spirit shows that when times are difficult, when Israel ahs to defend itself, we know where we can be found,” he said.
Face with rising radical Islam in the Arab world and the consequences it has for democracy the State of Israel is in the front line, claimed the Confederation of Jews in France and the Friends of Israel.
For the CRIF, “we can’t equate the democratic and pluralistic State of Israel with the terrorist and totalitarian Hamas movement, which promotes a culture of death ad which espouses genocidal rhetoric against Jews in its charter”.
The Chief Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, who participated in the protest, declared his “profound and complete solidarity with the State of Israel” in the name of the French Jewish community “at this testing and painful time”.
He also expressed “his sympathy with all the victims of this latest conflict, Israeli victims as well as Palestinian civilians”.
The Israeli ambassador thanked the crowd, recalling that “Gaza is a bastion of terrorism” and that “the battle we are engaged in is against terrorism”.
A similar support rally will also be organized in Brussels, Belgium, next Sunday.
Since the start of Operation Pillar of Defence seven days ago, more than 800 rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip on Israel.
An 18 year-old Israeli soldier, Yosef Fartuk, was killed by one of these rockets Tuesday.
Aside from this, a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip destroyed a building at the centre of Rishon Lezion, the four largest Israeli city.
The Iron Dome anti-missile Defence System has successfully intercepted 389 rockets aimed at the most populated Israeli cities since the start of the operation.
According to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), more than 1,400 terrorist sites and infrastructures have been hit in the Gaza Strip.
The majority of the launching sites of the FAjr5 long-range rockets capable of targeting Israeli centres were destroyed.