Around one million people - including fifty leaders from around the world joined Sunday afternoon in Paris a march against terror and described as "a cry for freedom" to honor those killed in this week's terror attacks in the French capital.
The march is a response to the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly newspaper, in which 12 people were killed on Wednesday, and a hostage-taking in a kosher supermarket in xwhich four people were killed. The two attacks were carried out by Islamist terrorists who were killed by police intervention.
The unprecedented unity march was led by French President Francois Hollande who was accompanied by and leaders from Germany, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Britain, the EU and the Palestinian Authority among others.
Some 2,200 police and soldiers patrolled Paris streets to protect marchers from would-be attackers, with police snipers on rooftops and plain-clothes detectives mingling with the crowd. City sewers were searched ahead of the vigil and underground train stations around the march route are due to be closed down.
The silent march - which may prove the largest seen in modern times through Paris - reflected shock over the worst militant Islamist assault on a European city in nine years. For France, it raised questions of free speech, religion and security, and beyond French frontiers it exposed the vulnerability of states to urban attacks.
"Paris is today the capital of the world. Our entire country will rise up and show its best side," President Hollande said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Paris to take part in the mass rally. He was accompanied by Natan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Netanyahu appeared to be the only major world leader who brought his own security detail to the march. The security guard was linking arms with Netanyahu and stood in the front row along with the other world leaders.
Both Netanyahu and Hollande will attend a ceremony Sunday night at the Great Synagogue of Paris in memory of the 17 people killed in the terrorist attacks this week in Paris, including four Jews at a kosher supermarket on Friday.
The four men are to b buried in Israel, the Israeli media reported. The decision came after the Israeli foreign ministry reached out to the families with an offer to bury the victims in Israel, despite the fact that they were not Israeli citizens, and the families accepted.
The funerals are set to take place on Tuesday and the four will officially be recognized as terror victims.
The victims, who were killed shortly before the start of Shabbat on Friday afternoon, were named as Yohan Cohen, 22, an employee of the HyperCacher store, Yoav Hattab, 21, a student of Tunisian origin and the son of the chief rabbi of Tunis, Phillipe Barham, 45, an executive at an IT company and father, and François-Michel Saada, 64, a retired father of two.
The four bodies will be airlifted to Israel on Monday night, and laid to rest in Jerusalem.
Amedy Coulibaly, the Islamist gunman who murdered the four men and held others hostage before he was killed by French security forces at the kosher store, reportedly told a French journalist at the height of the siege that he had deliberately chosen to target Jews.
The last decade has seen a series of high profile attacks on Jews in France, including the kidnapping and brutal murder of Ilan Halimi in 2006 and a shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 that left four people dead, including a rabbi and three children.
During the summer, a number of anti-Israel rallies turned violent, including one in which Jewish worshipers were trapped inside a synagogue.
Following Friday's attack on the Hyper Cacher shop, Israeli leaders upped calls for French and European Jews to make Israel their home.
“To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray, the state of Israel is your home,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement, referring to the Jewish practice of facing Jerusalem during prayer.

by Joseph Byron Around one million people - including fifty leaders from around the world joined Sunday afternoon in Paris a march against terror and described as "a cry for freedom" to honor those killed in this week's terror attacks in the French capital.
The march is a response to the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly newspaper, in which 12 people were killed on Wednesday, and a hostage-taking in a kosher supermarket in xwhich four people were killed. The two attacks were carried out by Islamist terrorists who were killed by police intervention.
The unprecedented unity march was led by French President Francois Hollande who was accompanied by and leaders from Germany, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Britain, the EU and the Palestinian Authority among others.
Some 2,200 police and soldiers patrolled Paris streets to protect marchers from would-be attackers, with police snipers on rooftops and plain-clothes detectives mingling with the crowd. City sewers were searched ahead of the vigil and underground train stations around the march route are due to be closed down.
The silent march - which may prove the largest seen in modern times through Paris - reflected shock over the worst militant Islamist assault on a European city in nine years. For France, it raised questions of free speech, religion and security, and beyond French frontiers it exposed the vulnerability of states to urban attacks.
"Paris is today the capital of the world. Our entire country will rise up and show its best side," President Hollande said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Paris to take part in the mass rally. He was accompanied by Natan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Netanyahu appeared to be the only major world leader who brought his own security detail to the march. The security guard was linking arms with Netanyahu and stood in the front row along with the other world leaders.
Both Netanyahu and Hollande will attend a ceremony Sunday night at the Great Synagogue of Paris in memory of the 17 people killed in the terrorist attacks this week in Paris, including four Jews at a kosher supermarket on Friday.
The four men are to b buried in Israel, the Israeli media reported. The decision came after the Israeli foreign ministry reached out to the families with an offer to bury the victims in Israel, despite the fact that they were not Israeli citizens, and the families accepted.
The funerals are set to take place on Tuesday and the four will officially be recognized as terror victims.
The victims, who were killed shortly before the start of Shabbat on Friday afternoon, were named as Yohan Cohen, 22, an employee of the HyperCacher store, Yoav Hattab, 21, a student of Tunisian origin and the son of the chief rabbi of Tunis, Phillipe Barham, 45, an executive at an IT company and father, and François-Michel Saada, 64, a retired father of two.
The four bodies will be airlifted to Israel on Monday night, and laid to rest in Jerusalem.
Amedy Coulibaly, the Islamist gunman who murdered the four men and held others hostage before he was killed by French security forces at the kosher store, reportedly told a French journalist at the height of the siege that he had deliberately chosen to target Jews.
The last decade has seen a series of high profile attacks on Jews in France, including the kidnapping and brutal murder of Ilan Halimi in 2006 and a shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 that left four people dead, including a rabbi and three children.
During the summer, a number of anti-Israel rallies turned violent, including one in which Jewish worshipers were trapped inside a synagogue.
Following Friday's attack on the Hyper Cacher shop, Israeli leaders upped calls for French and European Jews to make Israel their home.
“To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray, the state of Israel is your home,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement, referring to the Jewish practice of facing Jerusalem during prayer.