A united and solidary Belgium paid homage to the victims of the attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, during a ceremony in the Great Synagogue of the Belgian capital on Monday.
Around 1000 people attended the ceremony under tight security including several government ministers as well as religious Christian and Muslim leaders, which began with the lighting of a candle in memory of the victims by the museum’s president, Philippe Blondin.
Three people were killed in the attack - a couple of Israeli tourists who came in the Belgian capital to celebrate their wedding anniversary and a French woman working a volunteer at the museum. A fourth person, an employee of the museum, is in critical condition.
French police have arrested a suspect in Marseille in connection with the attack. The suspect is identified as Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old Frenchman from Roubaix in northern France, who spent a year in Syria and is a radicalized Islamist.
"All the messages of sympathy that we received attest that the mission fulfilled by our museum is appreciated by all and reinforce our commitment that our cultural activities will continue with even more determination and enthusiasm’’, said Blondin in his address
The president of the Jewish community of Brussels,Philippe Markiewicz highlighted the importance of inter-religious dialogue and of the ‘’living together.’’
He also thanked the Belgian government especially the judicial authorities for their interventions. Belgium, he said, has demonstrated once more that it was an "active democracy."
Brussels’ Chief Rabbi Albert Guigui closed his prayer with the hope that ‘’our young people can live in peace and harmony in this beautiful country of Belgium.’’
The ceremony ended with the collective Kaddish ( the Jewish prayer for the dead ) and the Belgian and Israeli national anthems.