French Prime Minister Appeals for Jews To Stay
Image by getty images
France’s prime minister appealed to the Jews of France to remain in the country in the wake of a call by his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu for Jews to move to Israel.
“My message to French Jews is the following: France is wounded with you and France does not want you to leave,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Monday, a day after two attacks in Copenhagen which mirrored two deadly attacks in Paris last month, the French news agency AFP reported.
In the wake of the Copenhagen attacks, including one outside of a synagogue which left a Jewish volunteer security guard dead, Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said Sunday in a statement: “To the Jews of Europe and to the Jews of the world I say that Israel is waiting for you with open arms.”
“The place for French Jews is France,” Valls said Monday. “I regret Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks. Being in the middle of an election campaign doesn’t mean you authorize yourself to make just any type of statement.”
Israeli national elections are scheduled for March 17.
Valls also said Monday that the threat of terror attacks remains high in France and that security measures would remain high for as long as necessary. France deployed 10,000 troops to protect Jewish buildings and other public sites in the wake of two attacks by Islamists last month that left 17 dead, including four Jewish men at a kosher supermarket.
Several hundred graves were vandalized in a Jewish cemetery in northeastern France, it was reported Sunday. Valls, in a tweet, called the vandalism “a vile, anti-Semitic act, an insult to the memory” of the dead. He vowed to find those responsible.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
