French Jews 'Come Home' | Yossi Aloni ISRAEL TODAY

French Jews 'Come Home'

Tuesday, January 19, 2016 |  Yossi Aloni  

ISRAEL TODAY


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Topics:Anti-Semitism


The Anti-Defamation League recently hosted a memorial event marking the first anniversary of the “Charlie Hebdo” and Hypercacher terrorist attacks in Paris, and recognizing some of the French Jews who made aliyahto Israel as a result.

The event was attended by the French Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave (pictured), former Israeli Ambassador to France Daniel Shek, cartoonist Michel Kichka, and Patrice Valid, the manager of Hypercacher who was wounded in the Muslim terrorist attack on the supermarket.

Maisonnave told the gather that “radical Islam is our common enemy. Terrorism is terrorism no matter where it happens in the world.” A night earlier, during a memorial service in central Paris, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls insisted there was no justification for the attacks.

Patrice Valid, who has since moved to Israel, recalled the events of that fateful day. “The terrorist instilled in us fear. He wanted to kill us because we were Jews,” he explained. “But I did not move to Israel out of fear. I came home.”

Carole Nuriel, director of the ADL in Israel, said it was now clear that the anti-Semitic and anti-Western terrorism plaguing Europe had nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as is so often claimed.

“The conflict is just an excuse,” stated Nuriel. “Understanding that anti-Semitism affects not only the Jews, but any society in which it exists is very important.”

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