English
Français
News
|
Published on 17 January 2016
Ronald Lauder: Since Paris attacks, terrorism remains undiminished
By Sam Sokol, published in the Jerusalem Post January 11, 2016
The threat to terrorism is just as potent today as it was a year ago when Islamist gunmen murdered four people at a Parisian kosher grocery, the president of the World Jewish Congress said at the weekend.
“Despite the commitment and efforts undertaken by the French and other European governments, the terrorist threat has not diminished,” Ronald Lauder wrote in a letter to Roger Cukierman, president of the Jewish umbrella group Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France, that was read out loud at a memorial on Saturday evening.
“Today, we mourn the four innocent people who were gunned down at the Hyper Cacher market one year ago. Their crime? Like Jews throughout the ages, they were targeted simply for being Jewish. And we also remember the 13 other French citizens who were killed that dark week.”
“We heard clear words from President Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Many things have been done to improve security of Jewish sites in France, and we salute them. However, we also note that the threat for Jews and non-Jews alike has not disappeared."
“We see constant terror attacks in other countries as well, on a daily basis. Jews continue to be prime targets for terrorist attacks. In Israel, in Europe, in the United States, and in many other places,” Lauder wrote.
Speaking at a memorial for the victims of the supermarket siege on Saturday, Valls stressed the importance of defending his country’s Jewish minority.
“How could France leave its Jewish compatriots to live in fear, let them doubt for even just an instant that here is their home; Watch more and more of them leave their country because they don’t feel safe anymore but also because they feel misunderstood; because they don’t feel they belong? This should be, for all of us, for the French people, an unbearable thought,” he said... Read more.